Oh, maaannn! They are the WORST.

Check around in your want ads or in the telephone directory under pest control. Around here, some folks will trap them for free, or even pay you per head caught, as they are a popular game meat.

Perhaps the cool weather will help your roses survive. I can't think of ANYTHING as destructive as hogs. No fence will keep them out, no repellant will work, they fear nothing. They're like organic bulldozers.

Try sprinkling cheap cayenne pepper powder in and around the bed.

It might make them think twice before rooting.

I'm willing to try anything to avoid more destruction. We've been here over 30 years, and this is the first time I've had a problem with wild hogs. I wonder if Sam's has a huge container of cayenne pepper.

They're a plague here too, though I've never seen destruction as severe as what you describe. I think that in our garden the wild boars root for grubs in the old hay we use for amendment and in the ground itself.
I read that these aren't the native Italian wild boars (and not feral hogs either, which I suppose is what you have), but were imported by hunters as a game animal. The article said that the imported race of wild boars was larger than the natives, and, unlike the Italian animal, they root. They sure can make a mess in the garden. Their population has apparently been dropping since wolves arrived in our area, and thank Heaven, since their numbers were huge.
I'm sorry about your roses! The 'Comtesse' sounds particularly beautiful.
Melissa

How awful for you! Feral pigs have become horrible pests and an ecological disaster, and it's almost impossible to decrease their number. I think even a wolf or mountain lion would think twice before attacking a large male.

Armadillos and hogs both seems really unfair. The dryness here seems to keep away a lot of pesky animals so it's never all bad.

Ingrid

Yes, Ingrid, they are destroying native plants in our state and national forests here in Florida. They breed like rabbits, and like Bluegirl said, they're like mini bulldozers.

Melissa, these aren't native. They're domesticated pigs, probably from when the Spaniards first settled Florida, that have gone feral.

They're all over the wildlife area at the end of my road, but they've never bothered my gardens before. It astounded me that they could root up a three-foot tall rose that had been in the ground several years.

I hate them, too,and have been having incresing problems with them,since they dig under my fence to get into the garden,Thank Heaven I've not had the tremendous damage that floridarose has suffered (keeping fingers,toes,legs and arms crossed).Last summer I ended up having to sort of "fence" around the outside of my fence; i.e.putting stuff like sheet metal on the ground along the outside of the fence, to discourage them from getting near it.I also despise the people that hunt them; these guys have no respect for private property,or anything/anyone. Several times I have had to call the police because when I arrived at my land, gangs of these people were shooting; I could not go onto my own property without risking my life! Sad to say, since boar hunting is permitted here in Tuscany every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from mid October to mid January,I am very reluctant to even go to my land on these days. Even the police hate them, they cause so much trouble...it's an awful situation. bart

I can't believe someone would come on your property without your permission to hunt. Hogs are a huge problem in Texas as well, destroying fences and property, mainly in ranches. The only way to control them is to eliminate them permanently. Most of the ranches allow people to hunt them to get rid of them or hire people to kill them. That is the only way to control the population, they breed like bunnies. We have friends with a huge ranch and they will tell anyone visiting that if they see hogs, shoot them.
Floridarose I'm not sure that would be a option for you since you probably live in a more rural area, good luck with the cayenne pepper too, I'm not sure it will work but you never know.

Laws governing whom you can keep off your rural agricultural property are different in Italy. As I understand it, you can't post your land off-limits for various kinds of use, including hunting. Of course we're not talking about homes and businesses here.
Perhaps we have a better class of hunters here in Piacenza. Not that I love hunters as a group, but I think we need them, given the depradations of the wild boars and the recently arrived roe deer. A couple of years ago we had a clan of wild boars that established themselves in the patch of woods below our house, and among other activities tore down a low wall about ten yards from our front door. We made inquiries and called the local hunting squad, who came and shot them. I realize this sounds odd coming from a peaceful vegetarian. The thing is their populations need to be under control somehow, and shooting them is probably about as little cruel a death as they'd find as wild animals (the alternatives are sickness, starvation, and wolves, none very sweet).
The wolves are helpful, and I hope they do manage to establish some kind of equilibrium with the deer and the boars. The human hunters can't keep up with them.
Melissa

You're lucky that the hunters are not so bad in your area, Melissa. And I ,too, have heard that boars are not native to this area at all; they were brought in FOR THE HUNTERS. So of course now they are a total pest and an environmental disaster(both the boars and the hunters...)

Wild hogs are my worst fear for the garden but I don't think they'll come to my suburban lot. Friends who live near woods have enormous problems and they are a serious traffic hasard around here. Wild hogs were exterminated in the 18th century but hunters re-introduced them and there are now 300 000 wild boar in the south and middle parts of Sweden. An electric fence is the only means of keeping them out of gardens, an expensive solution. The present mild winter will probably mean an enormous increase of the population.

Wow, it seems there are a lot of us with hog issues. Who'd a thunk. They did come back last night but didn't dig the roses back up. They dug up a chunk of pasture instead. I'm going to have to take serious steps here to protect my garden. I have a gun but am not thrilled about sitting up into the wee hours of the morning. It's chilly here right now. It will be in the 30s tonight.

You could try just firing your gun without really trying to hit one, sometimes that is enough to scare them off and they may not want to return. But I agree I would not want to be sitting up during the night waiting for the annoying creatures, especially in the cold lol. Good luck in getting rid of them.

Thanks, Boncrow, but I will probably actually have to shoot at them, as my neighbors shoot all the time target practicing, and that apparently hasn't scared them off. It looks like they have been back in the same area they rooted up before, but did not uproot the roses again. I'm going to fence this area off from the woods down by the creek. I think that's how they're getting in is up through that strip of woods. It will take some time but I think will be worth the effort in the long run.