Oh sure, they look kind of cute and fuzzy when you see a photo like the one above.
You want to know how they look even better? Like THIS:
I’m as soft as the next person, and if I had to kill my own meat I’d definitely be a vegetarian. But what we really need around here is a ‘cacciatore’ – a hunter. After ten years with nary a sign we’ve been invaded by the wild boars, known here as ‘cinghiale’ (pronounced ching-ghee-ah’-lay). They have visited and torn up each of our six fascie though, through some miracle, they have so far left the vegetable garden untouched.
Wikipedia has a great deal of information about this widely-dispersed ungulate. Some of the more interesting data are: height, averages 22-43″ (that last is almost 4′ tall at shoulder – yikes!); weight, 110-210 pounds, though in Tuscany and Liguria they tend to be larger, perhaps 180-220 pounds. They have four tusks which they keep sharp for defense and for rooting around.
And that’s the crux of our problem with the pigs – they root around like crazy, and do an amazing amount of damage to ground and crops in a short period of time.
They tend to be crepuscular or nocturnal, so we don’t see them that often. But we know when they’ve been here. Plants are uprooted, there are big dirt holes where there used to be none, and there is a wild and pungent smell that is unmistakable (and not very pleasant).
They are more nimble than you’d imagine. The photo above shows the chewed up edge of a wall where the pigs have scrabbled up from the fascia below.
As far as I know they don’t actually climb trees, but they will certainly stand up tall and break branches if there is something there they want (in the case above, it was some plums – see previous post).
This year brought us a banner crop of apricots, most of which we harvested. A lot of spoiled ones fell on the ground, and there were a lot left at the top of the tree which we couldn’t reach. We were surprised that the cinghiale didn’t eat the groundfalls on the their early visits, choosing instead to dig trenches around other trees. Then one day last week Speedy went out to the apricot tree to get some fruit for lunch. There was no sign of an apricot anywhere. Everything on the ground had been vacuumed up, and the tree, which had been madly speckled yellow with fruit the night before showed nothing but green leaves, not a fruit to be seen. Turns out these rascals know how to butt the trees to get the very ripe fruit to fall. And they’re smart enough to wait until the fruit is very ripe to do it. Speedy couldn’t believe his eyes; he just stood there staring, wondering if he was looking at the wrong tree. But no. The thieves had come and taken everything.
We asked a lot of people what could be done. The obvious solution is to fence the property. But this is Italy! In order to put up a permanent fence, we are told, we would have to do a ‘project’, complete with geometra, plans, town approval and so forth. It seems a daunting prospect, in addition to sounding very expensive. Introducing natural predators might be a solution, but somehow I think the town fathers would take a dim view if we imported tigers, wolves and, for the piglets, pythons.
Simone, who keeps our motorini running smoothly, said he had heard that the pigs don’t like shade cloth and olive nets, and that if we were to build a not terribly high fence of one or the other of these, the pigs would not come in. Worth a try, we thought.
We did this on the two points where we surmised the pigs were gaining access, and for three nights we had no visitors. Then they came back and tore up two upper fascie. My theory is they simply walked down the steps from the street above our house to get there, but we don’t really know.
There is a hunting season in the fall, and we hear a lot of gunshots, but I don’t think there’s any way the hunters can keep up with the exploding population of cinghiale. They are well adapted to suburban and country life, and the sows produce two litters a year of from anywhere between three and fourteen piglets. They are, in short, a nuisance.
I’m sure there is a solution to our problem (see ‘fence’ above) and no doubt we’ll resign ourselves to it one of these days. In the meantime our property is beginning to look like a Christo exhibition. And I just know that those damn pigs are watching the garden and waiting for the tomatoes to ripen.
A Path To Lunch (@apathtolunch) said:
Now we’ll see how the Michigan legislature fares against cinghiali:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/08/31/160394513/battle-over-michigans-new-swine-rules-goes-hog-wild
farfalle1 said:
Wouldn’t you think they could identify the Wild pigs as a menace, but allow farmers to raise them under controlled conditions?
Bobbie said:
This is funny (no, not the pig problem…). I didn’t know what you meant by fascie, and when I googled the word, I knew you didn’t mean internal human connective tissue. Then I googled “fascie garden” and my first result was your post from June 19, 2010, describing fascie gardening! (Obviously, I should merely have searched for “fascie” in your blog.)
farfalle1 said:
I don’t actually know if ‘fascie’ is used that much – the singular is ‘fascia,’ and is Italian for what we call the terracing that’s done to make it possible to plant a steep hillside. The stone walls are beautiful – even walking in the woods you find them, long abandoned from the days when there were more people willing to do subsistence farming on difficult terrain. The damn pigs can tear down a 1,000 year old wall in short order. I’m so glad you checked out my blog – hope you come back.
A Path To Lunch (@apathtolunch) said:
The devils are causing collapse of the rock walls of terraces in many places – terraces more than a thousand years old. Ironically, I’ve read these cinghiali are of Romanian origin and were deliberately introduced decades ago because the native cinghiali had been hunted out (by angry expat apricot growers, no doubt).
Gil said:
An old timer told me than a domestic pig becomes wild after about four generations in the wild. Could just be domestic pigs?
farfalle1 said:
We haven’t seen these particular pigs, so I suppose it’s possible; but the hills are full of the wild boar, so I think it’s more likely to be them. Maybe I should invest in a motion camera?
farfalle1 said:
1,000 years old? Now that’s a tragedy. We had heard that the cinghiale were introduced, but I couldn’t find anything written anywhere about that. I think all the hills around here were hunted out during the second war – there are still not so many wild beasts around, other than the pigs (and the angry expat apricot growers – ha ha).
Yolanda said:
Try leaving out some fruit coated in chili powder. I used this method to get rid of a nuisance squirrel.
farfalle1 said:
Not a bad idea, maybe we’ll give it a try. I think the pigs are smarter than squirrels, though.
lindyloumacinitaly said:
Sorry to hear you have been invaded!
farfalle1 said:
Thanks, LindyLou.
Anonymous said:
JWN When our next door neighbor hears the pigs nearby in the adjacent woods at night the flips a few firecrackers their way from his bedroom window..It works….until the next night.
farfalle1 said:
Yes, they seem to be remarkably persistent. And smart. They probably know a firecracker is just a big irksome noise. Bah!
Hilary said:
That Cinghilae alle Cacciatore version of your visitors starts to look more and more like their best side. I hope that your Christo defense is working and that you have been able to figure out all manner of ingress. Hearing gun shots in my vicinity always distresses me – I think I was scarred by seeing “Bambi”. I wish you and your tomatoes buona fortuna!
farfalle1 said:
Cinghiale alle any-old-way is delicious, though we have a friend who finds it too gamey. It is rich, and strong-flavored, like most wild animals. We have had quiet week with regard to pigs – they seem to have shifted their attentions to our neighbor to the south. But then, our tomatoes aren’t ripe yet.
Diana said:
Nature! Ugly pigs rooting around your house – how frustrating. How about a motion sensitive light that goes on when anything moves – would it scare the pigs since they are nocturnal?
farfalle1 said:
We have a motion detector activated light on our stairs, and I think it did not discourage them. We’re trying to find out what they don’t like – so far it seems to be tigers and wolves, so we’re not much further along in this direction!
Phoebe Stone said:
“Do not follow strictly the law.” I think Agostino has the solution. Rig up a fence-like structure, not a proper fence. This reminds me of groundhogs in VA and Wm. A. going out to the garden with a rifle. The groundhogs won, but it was great theatre none the less. Good Luck!
farfalle1 said:
Fortunately for us, though they dig, they do not seem to dig deep holes to crawl under a fence, for instance – at least not that I know of. So in that regard, anyway, they are better than groundhogs. On the other hand, the damage they do is proportional to their much greater size.
agostino said:
you can ask the provincial police, they can come with a rifle and kill the perpetrator. But that’s no solution. Making a fence, thats quite definitive, as you check for holes they can dig. Do not follow strictly the law. Use the large net (sheep net, is called) come 4 feet high. The poles, do not use concrete but on the top of fascia, otherwise just insert to the ground down a foot. That’s not a fence you need permission, and unless pigs are strongly attracted by something, they just keep at large.
farfalle1 said:
Agostino, thank you so much for the fence information. This sounds like the ideal solution – as you say, killing them is not the best way to control the problem. It does seem that the least impediment discourages them, which is good for us.
Diane Hulser said:
Off with their heads, let them eat cake – whatever it takes to restore the gardens.
farfalle1 said:
Cake… guillotine – what a good idea. So far the veggie garden is okay, and we’ve managed to rake the dirt on the other fascie into some semblance of order. Awaiting further developments…
Gil said:
I wonder if you can get permission to hunt them out of season because they are damaging your crops?
farfalle1 said:
What a good idea! I’ll ask…