JACKSON — A new bill introduced in the Senate this week would allow people to take Wild Hogs with the assistance of drones. Mississippi is battling an ongoing wild hog invasion. 

Senate Bill 2662 would allow people to hunt, trap and take wild hogs with the assistance of unmanned aerial vehicles or drones. Currently, there is no statute permitting legal taking of hogs with such devices. 

Wild hogs cause nearly $1.5 billion in damage each year according to the US Department of Agriculture. 

Mississippi must remove at least 75 percent of the population to keep the population from growing. Traps are by far the most effective and efficient way of removing wild hogs from the landscape as entire sounders, or family groups, can be removed at once. 

Hogs produce 4 to 6 piglets in each litter and have a gestation period of 114 days which means they can reproduce multiple times in a calendar year. Sows, female hogs, are sexually mature at 6 to 8 months old. 

Hogs are omnivores and opportunistic. Signs of wild hogs are their footprints, rooted up fields and wallows. A hog’s tusk will plow through the ground like a farm implement. 

They are capable of transmitting at least 30 virulent and bacterial diseases and at least 37 parasites. Many of these can be transmitted to livestock, pets, wildlife, and even humans. 

Hogs are a problem for wildlife management because they will destroy food plots and forage sites for wildlife.