September Landscapes – Wild hogs pose a problem

[Sirhornsalot]

This photo was taken in a neighborhood in McKinney, Texas.

Hogs leaving increasingly devastating mark on suburban landscapes

A few months ago, I wrote a column about how deer are encroaching on our suburban neighborhoods and feeding on some of the plants and flowers we put in our landscapes. With deer, the real and only concern is their eating of our plants. However, there is another animal in Texas that we must contend with, too. And the problem seems to be getting worse over time.

I’m talking about wild hogs. They are moving further and further into suburban areas, through creek runs and greenbelts and even power line alleys. They are being seen by residents who walk during the late evenings.





The damage left behind by a group of wild hogs can be devastating. And very costly. During July and August, food supplies for hogs start becoming more difficult to find, although a hog will eat just about anything. They will go into new areas seeking new sources of food during this time. When they find it, they will keep coming back for it until they move on.

Just this week, one of our customers in Grapevine were visited by wild hogs and their beds and part of their lawn were tore up.



The damage from a hog is caused by their instinct to “root” up the ground to get to the food that they seek. That food is normally grub worms, which are located five to six inches below ground. And they will dig up 6-12 inches of soil to get to them.

“But I applied a grub worm kill back in early June, how can they still be down there?” you may ask. These grub worm application you applied likely did kill the grub worms you had at that time. And we apply in late May and early June because grub worms, at that time, are feeding on our grass’s roots.



The grub worms in the ground today are new and are in their early stages of development. Believe it or not, hogs have the ability to smell the grubs even though they are below 5-6 inches of soil.

The landscape beds we have are filled with softer, looser soils for the benefits of the shrubs and flowers we put in them. The hogs are likely to hit these locations first.

In one case, we installed new Palisades Zoysia turf in a lawn where the customer lived at the end of a new residential development. His property backed up to a greenbelt area and creek. In that case, hogs came in during the night and destroyed half of that turf only hours after we put it down. The returned the next day to reinstall.

So how can a homeowner prevent something like this from happening? What options do we have?

I’ve heard lots of different opinions on the subject. Some want to trap the hogs, but once you trap one, what are you going to do with it? They are not easy to deal with and are frankly, quite dangerous.

The best and most reasonable way to keep them out of your landscape is to remove the food they are seeking. This means apply a granular grub treatment. Apply heavily to your beds and moderately over the lawn. It is not necessary to apply to a fenced-in back yard.

If you have no known wild hog presence in your neighborhood, there’s really no reason to apply anything. But if your neighborhood begins reporting sightings, you should be pro-active and apply a grub control granular product. Once applied, water the product in for two consecutive days.

Hogs are not the only animal that will root up your flower beds. Armadillos will also seek out grubs in your beds although their damage isn’t near as significant as the hogs.

Sprinkler Setting Change

This is especially for those who have St Augustine grass or Zoysia grass. On Labor Day, change your sprinkler start time from night watering to morning water, starting at 5-6 am. We do this in order to reduce the chances of developing lawn fungus during the Fall.

Watering during the morning hours allows time for evaporating much of that water during the warmest, sunniest part of the day. Because it’s Fall, our nights are getting longer and cooler and our days are getting shorter and cooler. So we don’t water at night so that we’re not helping create the conditions for fungal growth.

You should continue morning starts through out the Fall and Winter. Come next May, we’ll change back to nightly watering starts. Fungus will not be a threat in May.

Sprinkler Inspection

Your sprinkler system has been taxed over the long, hot summer months. So it would be a great idea to have it checked for broken pipes, heads, and clogged nozzles.