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They are quite the nuisance in parts of California. If you're hiking, adding feral pig encounter to the existing mountain lion or bear encounter, can be overwhe

They are quite the nuisance in parts of California. If you're hiking, adding feral pig encounter to the existing mountain lion or bear encounter, can be overwhelming. I found it interesting how hunting backfires (scatters them and increases their range) as it seems to be always pounded into me "hunted out of existence" was a common thing that hunters would do if left to their own devices (I know, there is a LOT of propaganda in this space!) That said, I'm surprised there are not more trapping & slaughtering programs in place. The engineer in me wants to slaughter the pigs, use the cesium capsules at Hanford to irradiate/sterilize the meat of all bacteria and parasites, and then turn it into free bacon and/or jerky for whomever needs it. Impractical for sure but free bacon right?

thatguy0900 6y ago
You could just cook the meat right? Why irradiate it?
- ChuckMcM 6y ago
  Well if you were making jerky the salting process might not kill all the parasites. But it was more a nod to the story that came across HN a few days ago about Hanford having all this Cesium around that they weren't using. And it is in Washington state (a state with a pig problem) and the engineer in me likes the synergy of turning two problems into a public good.
  - thatguy0900 6y ago
    Ah, I missed that reference. I would be down to try free nuclear jerky.
bigbubba 6y ago
It seems you might be aware of this already, but irradiation of pork to kill parasites is an established practice in the food industry. Food irradiation in general is safe and effective, but weirds a lot of the general public out (particularly those with low scientific literacy. Irradiated food doesn't become radioactive!) There may be something to be said about the hazards of handling a gamma source like Cs-137 safetly and making sure nobody drops it in the city dump or steals a truck carrying it, but X-ray and electron beam irradiation don't have these drawbacks. Many people today eat irradiated food without ever realizing it, though if they did realize it they might balk.
- kjs3 6y ago
  I was under the impression that Cobalt-60 was more common for food irradiation (it's not soluble in water and has a shorter half-life, so less potential eco-impact). But, yeah, food irradiation is a really common process with few downsides once you get past the whole "made in a reactor" part.
  - bigbubba 6y ago
    AFAIK both Cobalt-60 and Cesium-137 are used as gamma sources for food irradiation, though Cobalt is more common.
  - ashtonkem 6y ago
    I find that reading about nuclear accidents actually helps here. Assuming you’re not standing next to something unbelievably “hot” (don’t do that!), the main issue is the dust that tends to settle onto everything and keep irradiating you. So radiated food is fine, but food that’s been coated in radioactive dust is emphatically not fine.
- everdrive 6y ago
  Dumb question, doesn't cooking also kill parasites just as effectively?
  - chmod600 6y ago
    A lot of cooking styles do not throughly and consistently heat all food to the required temperature for the required time to be 100% safe. And if you try to cook for extra time just to be safe, you end up drying out the meat a lot.
    - SAI_Peregrinus 6y ago
      That's where souc vide helps. You don't dry out the food (due to the containment in the bag) and you can keep the food in the required temperature range for plenty of time (because the immersion circulator keeps the water bath at a constant temperature range).
salamanderman 6y ago
I ran into 3 feral pigs on a walk in San Jose last weekend. They were pretty chill, though, rooting around and ignoring everyone 10 feet away from them on the path.
- shiftpgdn 6y ago
  You should use extreme caution around feral hogs. You could easily be gored or killed. A full grown feral hog can easily weigh. 3-900lbs. Imagine getting hit by an entire football team running at full speed. Or a small car with two knives strapped to the front. Edit: A woman was killed this year by feral hogs: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/us/texas-woman-killed-feral-hogs.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/us/texas-woman-killed-fer... . Attacks that result in death are unusual but you don't want to be in that position.
  - kfichter 6y ago
    > It was only the fifth documented fatal wild hog attack in the country since 1825. Welllllll those odds aren't terrible
- jabl 6y ago
  Chill, unless they nick your underwear while you're taking a nude sunbath: https://twitter.com/gonch145/status/1291439982230593536 https://twitter.com/gonch145/status/1291439982230593536
washadjeffmad 6y ago
In all practicality, you wouldn't care to consume wild boar due to boar taint[1]. It's disgusting to everyone, but women are particularly sensitive to the male sex hormone and tend to find it highly unpalatable. There's a reason why boars are used historically to represent especially unpleasant or revolting men. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boar_taint https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boar_taint
- ChuckMcM 6y ago
  Ewww, but okay. I wonder what the sex ratio is of wild pigs. Thanks for that link tho, learn something new every day.
- rriepe 6y ago
  Surely we'll find something that eats it, and then eat that?
  - ohiovr 6y ago
    Make pet food out of it.
  - pvaldes 6y ago
    The better solution to control them, whereas cleaning parasites at the same time, is clearly stablished and available. Research found that wolves yearly diet is composed of 80% of wild boar in some areas of Europe.
- morsch 6y ago
  It's commonly eaten in Europe (as commonly as any other game meat, anyway). By both men and women. It's not disgusting at all.
  - kasey_junk 6y ago
    Wild Boar meat is eaten in the US as well but a) almost always you’d prefer juvenile boar and b) boar taint is undetectable to many people. I for one don’t have a problem but my wife is repulsed by it. Also it’s not “gamey” it’s a different flavor profile.
adwww 6y ago
> I found it interesting how hunting backfires (scatters them and increases their range) You missed one of the bigger reason it backfire... people enjoy hunting them, which has made it a fairly lucrative industry in some areas. Therefore it's actually become against some people's interests to fully eradicate them.
EdwardDiego 6y ago
> it seems to be always pounded into me "hunted out of existence" was a common thing that hunters would do if left to their own devices Haha yeah, people say that, but recreational hunters typically have a vested interest in maintaining something to hunt... I say that as a recreational hunter - I started hunting after encountering starving deer in very poor condition in eaten out forest, they had even eaten all the mountain beech seedlings[1] which is a sure sign of desperation. And an obvious part of population control is shooting the hinds... ...which makes me somewhat unpopular with other recreational hunters. Although trophy hunters, at least, realise that lower populations lead to better antlers due to better nutrition for an individual animal. [1]: Not a real beech - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothofagus_solandri_var._cliffortioides https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothofagus_solandri_var._cliff...
- ashtonkem 6y ago
  The relationship between hunters, the state, and conservation are very complex. It doesn’t help that hunting tends to generate strong emotions in people.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

thatguy0900 6y ago

You could just cook the meat right? Why irradiate it?

ChuckMcM 6y ago
Well if you were making jerky the salting process might not kill all the parasites. But it was more a nod to the story that came across HN a few days ago about Hanford having all this Cesium around that they weren't using. And it is in Washington state (a state with a pig problem) and the engineer in me likes the synergy of turning two problems into a public good.
- thatguy0900 6y ago
  Ah, I missed that reference. I would be down to try free nuclear jerky.

bigbubba 6y ago

It seems you might be aware of this already, but irradiation of pork to kill parasites is an established practice in the food industry. Food irradiation in general is safe and effective, but weirds a lot of the general public out (particularly those with low scientific literacy. Irradiated food doesn't become radioactive!) There may be something to be said about the hazards of handling a gamma source like Cs-137 safetly and making sure nobody drops it in the city dump or steals a truck carrying it, but X-ray and electron beam irradiation don't have these drawbacks. Many people today eat irradiated food without ever realizing it, though if they did realize it they might balk.

kjs3 6y ago
I was under the impression that Cobalt-60 was more common for food irradiation (it's not soluble in water and has a shorter half-life, so less potential eco-impact). But, yeah, food irradiation is a really common process with few downsides once you get past the whole "made in a reactor" part.
- bigbubba 6y ago
  AFAIK both Cobalt-60 and Cesium-137 are used as gamma sources for food irradiation, though Cobalt is more common.
- ashtonkem 6y ago
  I find that reading about nuclear accidents actually helps here. Assuming you’re not standing next to something unbelievably “hot” (don’t do that!), the main issue is the dust that tends to settle onto everything and keep irradiating you. So radiated food is fine, but food that’s been coated in radioactive dust is emphatically not fine.
everdrive 6y ago
Dumb question, doesn't cooking also kill parasites just as effectively?
- chmod600 6y ago
  A lot of cooking styles do not throughly and consistently heat all food to the required temperature for the required time to be 100% safe. And if you try to cook for extra time just to be safe, you end up drying out the meat a lot.
  - SAI_Peregrinus 6y ago
    That's where souc vide helps. You don't dry out the food (due to the containment in the bag) and you can keep the food in the required temperature range for plenty of time (because the immersion circulator keeps the water bath at a constant temperature range).

salamanderman 6y ago

I ran into 3 feral pigs on a walk in San Jose last weekend. They were pretty chill, though, rooting around and ignoring everyone 10 feet away from them on the path.

shiftpgdn 6y ago
You should use extreme caution around feral hogs. You could easily be gored or killed. A full grown feral hog can easily weigh. 3-900lbs. Imagine getting hit by an entire football team running at full speed. Or a small car with two knives strapped to the front. Edit: A woman was killed this year by feral hogs: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/us/texas-woman-killed-feral-hogs.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/us/texas-woman-killed-fer... . Attacks that result in death are unusual but you don't want to be in that position.
- kfichter 6y ago
  > It was only the fifth documented fatal wild hog attack in the country since 1825. Welllllll those odds aren't terrible
jabl 6y ago
Chill, unless they nick your underwear while you're taking a nude sunbath: https://twitter.com/gonch145/status/1291439982230593536 https://twitter.com/gonch145/status/1291439982230593536

washadjeffmad 6y ago

In all practicality, you wouldn't care to consume wild boar due to boar taint[1]. It's disgusting to everyone, but women are particularly sensitive to the male sex hormone and tend to find it highly unpalatable. There's a reason why boars are used historically to represent especially unpleasant or revolting men. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boar_taint https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boar_taint

ChuckMcM 6y ago
Ewww, but okay. I wonder what the sex ratio is of wild pigs. Thanks for that link tho, learn something new every day.
rriepe 6y ago
Surely we'll find something that eats it, and then eat that?
- ohiovr 6y ago
  Make pet food out of it.
- pvaldes 6y ago
  The better solution to control them, whereas cleaning parasites at the same time, is clearly stablished and available. Research found that wolves yearly diet is composed of 80% of wild boar in some areas of Europe.
morsch 6y ago
It's commonly eaten in Europe (as commonly as any other game meat, anyway). By both men and women. It's not disgusting at all.
- kasey_junk 6y ago
  Wild Boar meat is eaten in the US as well but a) almost always you’d prefer juvenile boar and b) boar taint is undetectable to many people. I for one don’t have a problem but my wife is repulsed by it. Also it’s not “gamey” it’s a different flavor profile.

adwww 6y ago

> I found it interesting how hunting backfires (scatters them and increases their range) You missed one of the bigger reason it backfire... people enjoy hunting them, which has made it a fairly lucrative industry in some areas. Therefore it's actually become against some people's interests to fully eradicate them.

EdwardDiego 6y ago

> it seems to be always pounded into me "hunted out of existence" was a common thing that hunters would do if left to their own devices Haha yeah, people say that, but recreational hunters typically have a vested interest in maintaining something to hunt... I say that as a recreational hunter - I started hunting after encountering starving deer in very poor condition in eaten out forest, they had even eaten all the mountain beech seedlings[1] which is a sure sign of desperation. And an obvious part of population control is shooting the hinds... ...which makes me somewhat unpopular with other recreational hunters. Although trophy hunters, at least, realise that lower populations lead to better antlers due to better nutrition for an individual animal. [1]: Not a real beech - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothofagus_solandri_var._cliffortioides https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothofagus_solandri_var._cliff...

ashtonkem 6y ago
The relationship between hunters, the state, and conservation are very complex. It doesn’t help that hunting tends to generate strong emotions in people.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]