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Food plots are a vital element for the survival of game bird species such as bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) on Fort Riley Military Installation in Kansas. However, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) tend to eat the sorghum when it starts to ripen in September and continue feeding on it through November and December, often leaving no food for the quail during the winter. We conducted pen and field trails to determine if repellents were an effective and feasible method to protect grain sorghum food plots from deer damage. Two-choice pen trials with both deer and game bird species were used to determine preference and avoidance of milo treated with Liquid Fence® and Plantskydd™. Individual food plots on Fort Riley were used to test both repellents' effectiveness in protecting a 6-row perimeter around established food plots. When given a choice both bobwhite quails and pheasants avoided Plantskydd (P < 0 .001). Both repellents were avoided versus the control in the pen trials for white-tailed deer (P < 0 .0001); however, we found no difference in seed head damaged between field control plots and plots treated with Liquid Fence or those with Plantskydd (F7,23 = 0.88, P = 0.54). Although milo treated in the pens deterred white-tailed deer, we feel the use of repellents for treating food plots may be cost prohibitive and less effective than other deterrents such as netting fences.

Most feral pigs (Sus scrofa) are descendants of domestic swine that have gone wild and their reproduction is uncontrolled by man. A few populations may be descendants of European wild boar or crosses between wild boar and domestic swine. Disease control officials report that 23 states have established populations of feral pigs and the total feral pig population in the United States is probably in excess of 2 million animals. A population of feral pigs was documented in the fall of 1993 on the Fort Riley Military Installation in northeastern Kansas. Biologists from the Fort Riley Natural Resources Division and the Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit assessed the situation and recommended that the pig population be eradicated because of the potential for disease, crop damage, erosion, competition for food with native wildlife and depredation on native wildlife. The goal of this management plan is to eradicate feral pigs on Fort Riley. We have integrated a variety of control techniques emphasizing the use of cage traps, snares, and possibly radio telemetry and aerial hunting.