Uprooted crops, giant mud holes and damaged roads are symptoms of a growing problem in South Carolina.

Wild boars destroy local residents’ land, agriculture and paved roads while foraging for food, leaving a path of rubble and mud in their trace. Ken Truesdale, Lugoff resident and owner of Predator Pro, knows the extent of the hog problem.

Predator Pro is a business that traps and kills destructive wild animals.

"They’re very destructive not only to the land, but to the swamp and crops as well," Truesdale said.

The boars, which are not native to North America but came here with the pilgrims, are now present in every county in South Carolina, Charles Ruth, deer and turkey project supervisor for South Carolina’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR), said.

"There are 125,000 to 150,000 free roaming boars in the state, and within the past 10 or 15 years they have become present in all South Carolina counties," Ruth said.

Trapping and moving them around the state by hunters caused the rapid spread of the boars. The boars then move to another area after the food source is depleted. Trapping and killing the animals is the only way to remove them from the area, according to Truesdale.

"We need a constant effort to trap them; moving them doesn’t solve the problem, they just come back when the food is gone," he said.

While the largest populations occur along the Wateree River and coastal counties, Kershaw County as a whole has experienced the destruction these animals leave in their wake.

Stating Kershaw County will never completely rid itself of the hogs, Truesdale aims to keep them under jurisdiction.

"We’re never going to get rid of them now that they’re here, but hunters need to get rid of at least one-third of the population to keep them under control," he said.

Kershaw County residents have been experiencing the devastation of the boars on their land, and Ray Clepper is only one of the many locals to be affected.

Clepper, owner of Ray Clepper Boating Center in Irmo, is leasing about 400 acres of land in rural Lugoff. The area is used for hunting and growing crops of corn, millet and sunflowers.

"I knew we had hogs, but I had no clue how much of a problem they were going to be," Clepper said. "I knew there were boars on the land, but as soon as I planted the food plots they started showing up."

With more than $3,500 worth of crops, the pigs have eaten through the smaller "popcorn" stalks and damaged the surrounding land. Instead of eating the entire stalk, hogs will bite the crop in half, partially eat the corn ears, and move to the next plant.

"The only methods to get rid of the hogs that I’m aware of is hunting them or trapping them, but that doesn’t seem to be very effective. But I don’t really know any other way," Clepper said.

Due to the damages, Predator Pro will return $600 to Clepper, since the boars prevented them from completing all the crop care promised in the contract.

In order to manage the "ecological train wreck" known as feral boars, the South Carolina General Assembly passed a new law prohibiting the removal or transport of the hogs from the wild without a permit.

The law also allows hunters to harvest the destructive animals at night with certain weapon restrictions, "in an effort of trying to prevent the spread of them," Ruth said.

Hunters must now wear an artificial light that is carried on the person or attached to their hat, and carry a gun with iron sites. The barrel length must not exceed nine inches, and cannot be equipped with a scope, laser site or light-enhancing device.

The pigs cannot be hunted from a vehicle at night, but dogs can be used if the weapon requirement is met.

There are no weapon restrictions for hunting them during the day on private land, and DNR "encourages those who have wild hogs on properties they own or hunt to lethally and legally remove every hog they have the opportunity to remove," according to the press release.

Capable of having two litters of up to a dozen piglets each year, feral pigs carry diseases that affect both livestock and humans.

Diseases like brucellosis can infect humans and proves similar to the swine flu, while pseudorabies affects the central nervous system of domestic animals, according to a DNR press release.

Though some Kershaw County residents think killing the pigs constitutes an inhumane act, Ruth encourages hunters to use a legal and lethal technique on the animals if they are a problem on your land.

"These animals are not protected; there is no closed season and no bag limit on them," Ruth said.

To learn more about Predator Pro, Truesdale can be contacted at 513-9246.

In order to protect native species of plants and animals the boars are destroying in South Carolina, Truesdale asks people with a hog problem to live-trap and kill them, so they no longer cause damage to the environment.

Predator Pro gives the meat away to local food banks and charities, keeping only a few pigs a year for personal use.

"There’s nothing wrong with shooting a barbecue sandwich," Truesdale said.