How to Create Hog Bait at home?

Wild Feral Hogs have been a popular game for the hunting community in the southern states mainly due to lenient laws and overpopulation of wild hogs. Texas leads in with over 5 million feral hogs attracting hunters looking for their next big kill.

For bringing the wild pigs out in the open, hunters use bait, although one can buy them straight out of the shelf, it is possible to create diy hog bait at home.

What does a hog eat?

Hogs are omnivores and have no specific eating choices. The old saying eating like a pig validates it since hogs have a strong nose and come out to cover after detecting the food. There are a couple of different hog bait recipes which only target hogs while repelling other animals.

Best wild hog bait attractants

Some smells and flavors perform better than the others when attracting the hog, as hogs have a sweet tooth they will eat anything overly sweet.

Soured Corn

You may find sweet corn as a staple ingredient in many hog baits as hogs are familiar with the smell, but the sour taste of corn will keep deers at a distance. To create the mix, add 50 lb whole shell corn in a 5-gallon bucket filled with water and let it rest for a week to sour.

When hog hunting, you can dump the sour corn directly on the ground or fill it in a hole to attract hogs for a longer duration. To draw hogs from a far distance, keep the corns in a bag and hang it from a tree, allowing the scent to travel far away. Besides this, add corn to low-budget drink powders like jello or cool-aid for a sweeter mixture to create the boar attractant.

Anise Oil

For this method, mixing Anise oil(an essential oil used in perfumes, soaps, alcohol, gelatin, and candies) with corn can be an effective trick to draw hogs from miles away. After smelling the oil in the area, the hogs tend to root the ground and keep revisiting.

Buckling down on the Sweet Stuff

Hunters can take advantage of the hog's sweet tooth to their advantage by further sweetening the blend. Here is a recipe suggested by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources for this task.

Create a mix of 150 pounds of corn, 8 pounds of sugar, one packet of yeast, and 4-5 packs of strawberry, grape, or raspberry gelatin. Place all of it in a 40-gallon trash can and fill it with water upto 3 to 4 inches above the corn. Secure it with a lid and let it rest under the sun for two weeks, occasionally stirring it daily with a shovel or a paddle.

Hog bait methods to avoid

Using toxicants and chemicals to bait the wild hogs is illegal in all 50 states. Avoid methods that include soaking food in oil or diesel as illegal methods result in serious action taken against you by the local fish and game law enforcing agency.

Where to go hog hunting?

After preparing the hog bait, the next step is to look for places to hunt. As mentioned earlier, Texas is quite popular amongst seasoned hunters as hog hunting in Texas is available all year around the clock with no hunting laws. Plus, there is no shortage of ranches offering hog hunting in Texas.

Located nearby San Antonio and Austin is the Independence Ranch in Texas, which provides safe and fully assisted hog hunt packages.

Having a team of professionals with more than 15 years in the industry, anyone who wishes to get the thrill of hunting can trust Independence Ranch in Texas for an unforgettable hog hunting experience.