Residents take hog problem into their own hands

MISSOURI CITY, TX If you live in Waterbrook West like Troy Bourgeois and his family you've likely had a night visitor at one point or another.

"You stay up at night and nothing happens. You stay up and stay up and stay up and the one night that you sleep in or you don't do anything, they're elusive and you wake up and your yard is upside down," said Bourgeois.

Sometimes the wild pigs stick around like the morning one charged his wife.

"It scared her enough to come running in, screaming," said Bourgeois.

So the neighbors have banned together to try and eliminate this pig problem.

"The pigs definitely make you think about putting a fence up. That's for sure," said Chuck Johnson. "Some of the neighbors have tried to put hot wire fences up because with no fence you're open game to the hogs."

He is one of several homeowners who helps set and check traps around the perimeters of their homes.

"The number one thing is worrying about small children and people getting hurt because the hogs will charge you," Johnson said.

As Sienna Plantation expands the wild pigs will be searching for new homes too. Neighbors hope they can drive them out before somebody gets seriously hurt.

"If you get the wrong pig with an attitude, they can definitely hurt you," Bourgeois said.

Waterbrook West is in the Missouri City city limits so using any kind of firearm is not an option. Residents say they are getting help from the city.

About 50 percent of all the wild hogs in the U.S. actually live in Texas. There are an estimated two million pigs, and they're found in nearly every Texas county. Experts say the population has expanded because the animals are extremely adaptable with a high reproductive rate.