How to Catch a Pig in Kona

Never imagined I would need to learn how to catch a pig in Kona, but that monumental occasion has now presented itself. It is part of living in “the country,” even though our new house is only a couple of miles from our previously very urban house in Hawaii. Instead of a .05 acre lot in The Pines, we now own a house on a half acre up Hualalai. And it abuts to private agricultural land, which supports horses, cows and, unfortunately, the wild boars of Hawaii.

When I first noticed a pig had torn up on the lawn on the south side of our property, I shored up the hog wire fence and hoped for the best. The pigs still managed to squeeze on through, albeit a smaller hole. Naturally, I shored it up again, with tighter spacing on the stakes. So, they found a new place. Now I know why my neighbor installed expensive wrought iron fencing around his property.

Also, in my quest for figuring out how to catch a pig in Kona, I turned to the internet for answers. Eureka, but then I found a former Council Member had access to a list he maintained of pig trappers in Kona. I contacted the office of our new Council Member Valerie T. Poindexter, and Sunshine emailed me the list. There are 29 pig trappers on that list but not all of them are located in Kailua-Kona.

I also watched a few videos. There is one YouTube video of a guy in Cambodia making a snare out of a Y-shaped piece of wood and rope. Watched it several times. Seemed simple enough to make a snare, but I do not excel at rope tying. Sacramento real estate, yes, but not rope tying. No sailor bones in me. No knots, no roping.

Fortunately, a person whose name I cannot give you stepped in to help, only under the circumstances of identity protection and that I do not tell anybody that he installed a pig trap in my yard. It a mutual gratification situation. I want to catch a pig in Kona and get rid of it. He wants the pig because Kailua pigmeat is darn tasty!

Which means as long as his freezer is not full, he is game to catch a pig in Kona for me.

Last night, I woke at 12:30 AM. Our cats were at the bedroom jalousie window. This is about 6 feet from my bed and I’ve never had the pigs wake me up before. Slept right through the munching from earlier times. I peeked out the window and spied 3 black humps in the yard, just standing there. Wanted to say, hey, go eat all of the corn and molasses I bought for you. Couldn’t turn on the lights to take a photo because they’d run away.

So I just went back to bed. They did not enter the trap last night. But tonight could very well be another story. Aloha.