Hi daffydill
The thing to remember is that a hog house is just a structure within which a hog can build a nest. Hogs don’t normally re-use nests – very sensible as a way reducing the impact of any external parasites. So I would clean out hog the house even if it has only had a hog there for short stays. They can shed ticks and tick eggs just as easily as one which stays longer and having some sort of nest in there might deter other hogs from using it.
I know in the advice it says October, for cleaning houses, but I think that is a bit late. I have a hog who started building what looks to be a hibernating nest in one of my boxes last night. It’s normally used for feeding, so I had opened it to get the bowl out. I have since been watching him on the video from last night. He used a fair bit of green material and I could see him tugging away at plants to get some of the material! I suspect he will do some more building tonight – hope so, as it didn’t look very robust – even though he was scurrying backwards and forwards for about two and half hours.
Just make absolutely certain that there are no hogs in residence.
Good luck. Hope you get tenant/s for the winter.
