Thread: Pest Controllers Endorsement

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

Why? is it just becasue the animals are hidden? I've never used thermals, as is obvious from the question.

Yes, where the native thickens up all you can see are glimpses close to the bush edge and pretty soon nothing at all. Plus, a bloke in pursuit, thrashing through thick native in the middle of the night with a head torch, trying not to make any noise, and not getting winded... pig holds all the cards in the native if you haven’t got three good dogs chasing him.

Pig runs are narrow and low in the really thick stuff, mostly not much higher than knee height. They can fly through thick native to a safe gully and their favourite hole in no time at all.

But if it’s mature native with lots of goats and/or deer, then its a different story, as the understory is usually gone and you can move around relatively easily. But no goats or deer? You can hardly see your hand in front of your face.

All depends on the type of country you’ve got to deal with. My example of NE Taranaki probably isn’t that relevant to regular Waikato because this Taranaki country is crazy steep with lethal gorges and lots of hard to reach bush remnants that harbour the pigs. The farmers I hunt with there will often send dogs in one side to flush the pigs out onto pasture on the other side, and either shoot them or catch them with fast dogs. The pigs aren’t that big there either, and don’t have much in the way of jaws, so quite easy to catch.

A mix of methods relevant to the environment is the way to go, so maybe that’s what @Johnny Booger can tell us about.