Hey all,
Just curious about something and have never seen a comment on it. Do pigs or will pigs eat oranges that have fallen off the tree? Would a LOT of oranges on the ground be a natural attractant?
Thanks
Nalajr
I bet they love'em. A pig will eat anything.
Do they move slower than a pig?...lol
If the answer is yes to that one, then the answer to your question would be a big yes!
God bless,Mudd
I remember watching a Quest Productions video titled "Hog Heaven". They filmed some of their feral hog bowhunting scenes in orange groves.
Pig will eat anything they can find.
They won't eat banana peels, but I bet they would scarf up oranges.
If they do, I'd bet they would taste pretty darn good...Internally marinated. I'd also bet their digestive tracks would be in overdrive.
ABSOLUTELY, they devistate orange groves.They root the feeder roots up, and squeeze the ripe fruit in there mouth and leave the orange hanging on the tree. Citrus farmers here are not interested in hunting ferel hogs but erradicating them. A sounder of sows and shoats can squeeze and eat an orange tree as high as they can reach in a night. Weve lost 15% of a crop to hogs in a month period.
yup ditto what William said it was never hard to get permission to shoot hogs out of groves growing up they are devatating to crops period and are extreme opportunistic feeders!
they will eat them as high as they can reach them!
Pigs eat everything.....
I've seen boars eat everything from live rattlesnakes, to dead deer and cows. i'm sure after all that, oranges would be a treat.
There is no 'food' that I know of a pig won't eat, and that includes you and me.
A pig won't eat cucumbers at least the ones we raised when I was a kid wouldn't.LCH
Been chasing pigs in orange groves since I moved to Fl in 1965. Still have permission to hunt a few local groves.
Oranges attract hogs, rabbits, and rats. Which in turn attract BuzzWorms, resulting in my first of 7 times being bitten. Now I not only watch my quarry, but also pay attention to whats on the ground around me. :knothead:
QuoteOriginally posted by bawana bowman:
Been chasing pigs in orange groves since I moved to Fl in 1965. Still have permission to hunt a few local groves.
Oranges attract hogs, rabbits, and rats. Which in turn attract BuzzWorms, resulting in my first of 7 times being bitten. Now I not only watch my quarry, but also pay attention to whats on the ground around me. :knothead:
I never would have thought about rattlesnakes (Buzzworms, I like the nickname) Something us northen boys don't have to worry about.
Thanks for the info everyone.
I ask because there is a grove that is close to me that apparently no one picks the oranges. They just ripen and hang on the trees. In 2 years here I have never seen a single person in there picking oranges. I have started to wonder if they are the sour kind of oranges or the ones that are used for industrial applications. Will pigs eat the SOUR oranges too?
I would love to see someone there to talk to, but I never have. It is about 200 acres in total probably and as near as I can tell it is just abandoned. The trees are FULL of ripened oranges right now and they'll eventually just drop to the ground. No one will be there to pick them. I have wanted to stop there and go get an orange and taste it to see what kind of oranges they are.
What do you all think now?
Nalajr
I'd sure be over there tasting and gleaning oranges. I grew up around the groves in the San Jouqin valley and have done that many times. And yes, hogs love the oranges. I used to work on a hog farm and they would have culls delivered from the packing house. The hogs loved 'em!
our cows will eat sour oranges but they really love the sweet ones..look for trails going into the orange grove. good luck
You could find the owner by going to the plot maps at the county seat. Find the owner and talk too them.
Might turn into a pig bonanza.
Mike
QuoteOriginally posted by wingnut:
You could find the owner by going to the plot maps at the county seat. Find the owner and talk too them.
Might turn into a pig bonanza.
Mike
I was going to say the same thing. Go to your county offices, and ask for the tax records for the property. It will tell you the owner, and where the tax bill gets mailed to.
Nala,
From a citrus farmers point of view, you should try and contact the land owner. There is a good chance it may be bank owned now, do to our land bust. Eitherway you need to get someones permission to access the property. Citrus farmers are battling several serious diseases currently that are easily spread. Yes hogs are a problem but these diseases im referring to our Grove killers. Just because the grove may look abandoned; that may and may not be true. The cost to keep a manicured grove is very expensive and if not carefully managed can outway the profit. Please do your proper leg work. I cant tell you how many times ive approached tresspassors picking fruit, cutting wood, and hunting. And when I ask what there doing they tell me, know one owns the grove and we can do whatever we want! They were asked to leave immediately!
Bill
good post Bill, hope alls well down there..my 3 citrus trees produced the smallest oranges I have ever seen,my tangereen tree has half dollar sized fruit..of course the sour orange trees did well..
QuoteOriginally posted by Mike Vines:
I never would have thought about rattlesnakes (Buzzworms, I like the nickname) Something us northen boys don't have to worry about. [/QB][/QUOTE]
I was gonna ask about buzz worms. Clever name!
They will eat the oranges but I`ve never seen a pig eat crabapples.RC
http://www.wimp.com/toogood/
Mudd!
Oops, that didn't work right, was suppose to be laughing at Mudd's comment!
Bill, didn't know you were a citrus grower. Learn something new everyday. I am small time, but in addition to the threat of diseases and cost of upkeep add trying to collect money owed by picking/packing companies.
My pigs must be strange as they don't seem to bother with the wild oranges, or lemons or even the tangerines that are growing wild on my place. Of course 3 feeders throwing corn twice a day and enough acorns on the ground this year to choke a,,, pig, may have something to do with it
When I went to Africa in '09 my PH piled up orange peels on the ground in front of the hide. The animals loved those things. I would be willing to bet, after seeing that in Africa, that pigs would scarf up oranges like they were candy.
Bisch
What about being attracted to diesel fuel? Has anyone heard of that?
We have two types of wild oranges growing in Central/South Florida. 1 is sour and most commonly found. The other is sweet and is harder to find. From my experience the pigs tend to shy away from the sour oranges in favor of the sweet. They will eat every one on the ground and will check the trees frequently when the oranges are dropping. Do not shoot any raccoons you see in the grove. They will knock a bunch of oranges out of the trees and eat a few and leave. They are your friends at that time of the year.
I have hunted a small wild grove of sweet oranges for over 20 years and have had great success on the deer. Deer will also eat the sweet oranges, rind and everything.They won't eat sour oranges, at least not if the sweet are available.I can't remember ever hunting the tress without having hogs come in. It's about as close to a sure thing there is short of a feeder. Not to toot my horn but I wrote an article for TBM a few years ago " Orange Blossum Special" about hunting deer near oranges trees.
A little sidebar: For those of you who find sour oranges useless. They make a GREAT pie. It is made similar to a Key Lime pie. PM me for the recipe, it's very easy.
Don,I remember reading that story. A retired gentleman used to come by and pick some of our sour oranges, he claimed eating them helped with his arthritis..seems like Mojo (marinade) is made with sour oranges too.
These aren't wild, they are planted in a grove and there are HUNDREDS of them. I have watched for 2 straight years these trees get FULL of oranges and no one picks them. They are hanging on the trees now.
I have just wondered why they are never picked and thought that they may be the kind of oranges that are not used for human consumption.
Of course I have also thought about whether the pigs like 'em.
Nalajr
If it hits the ground a pig will try to eat it-- if they can swallow it they'll keep eat'n em-
Try squeezeing fresh sour orange juice over a pork back strap as you are grilling it. It'll make your tung slap your brains out! Bottled mojo cant even compare to fresh sour orange juice.
Gregg, ya we have citrus and cattle, Dad takes care of the groves full time and my bro and i on the weekends. Unfortunately 120 ac of citrus wont support itself and three families.
was pig hunting about 14 years ago with a couple friends. one fellow shot a pig in a field, we pulled it to the edge of the field and gutted it. after we were finished we went across the field and stopped to take a breath. while we were shooting the breeze we looked over where we had just gutted his pig and there were two other pigs eating the fresh guts. after that I believe they will eat anything.
QuoteOriginally posted by bwillhunt:
Unfortunately 120 ac of citrus wont support itself and three families.
I heard that. Ten acres won't do much more than aggravate you! :)
Here ya' go
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/19/133048536/abandoned-orange-groves-produce-problems-in-florida
I saw a whitetail eat a bannana I dropped while walking in......so i wouldnt put it past em
Where I go to hog hunt in florida there is an orange grove next door and the hogs love eating the oranges. In the swamp nearby you will come across a lone ornge tree where the hogs must have deposited the seeds after having an orange snack.
Forget the oranges, bawana you've been bitten seven times by rattle snakes? I was thinking how lucky you guys are to be able to hunt pigs all year, I think I just changed my mind.
Anybody who has been bitten by a rattle snake seven times is BAD luck. :eek: Gonna think twice about hanging out with you any more, man!
I thought I was stupid for getting hit once! Then again I still catch and play with the pygmy rattlers.
Robert, I'll take you and Gregg soon to shoot some of those orange fed pigs.
Mint, check those orange trees, The sour ones are pretty in color and tend to have larger more dimpled skin. The sweet oranges tend to be smaller with a smoother dirty skin. I am about 80 % accurate ID ing them by sight but a taste test is the only sure way.
bwillhunt, you are dead on about the homemade mojo. Sour orange juice, garlic, a bit of olive oil, other spices to suit your taste and BAM! Perfect for a BBQ wild hog
mmmm wild hog marinated from the inside out..Don I still have those cedar branchs in my shed, are you coming to the spring shoot? or maybe I need to take a road trip before then?
Nala, I lived part time in your area (P.C. and FtMyers) back in 1983-1992 I sure loved the fishing down there.. (http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt46/Robertfishes/farmcedar.jpg)
QuoteOriginally posted by gregg dudley:
Anybody who has been bitten by a rattle snake seven times is BAD luck. :eek: Gonna think twice about hanging out with you any more, man!
Heck no, he is the one you want to be with. They gravitate towards him, leaving you more time to hunt. J/K
QuoteOriginally posted by free2bow:
What about being attracted to diesel fuel? Has anyone heard of that?
I've never tried it but hear you can soak a croaker sack with burnt motor oil and wire it to a tree and they will come to it and rub on it.
I'll be there Robert. Bring the branch!