Warn that a hunter is present? Not exactly. When people use special bait, it is usually something with a strong smell and that results in a significant change to the environment. That can dissuade hogs from showing up for a day or two until that becomes the norm. Some hogs do not like sudden changes to the environment. Other hogs don't care at all. I suspect, the more stressed your hogs are for food, the better baiting works and the more willing the hogs are to ignore changes in the environment that might otherwise be a warning to them.
With that in mind, there are NO miracle baits. I have tried at least a couple dozen commercial and homemade special recipes. I have fermented corn a variety of ways. I have used a variety of jello and koolaid mixes. I have tried a variety of fruits. I have tried using used cooking oil from the local diner (the smell really brings them in, I was told). Honestly, the commercial stuff just seems to be a waste of money and the homemade stuff seems to be a waste of time. Sure, the hogs will eat all of it, but it does not seem to work any better than just plain old corn. In my testing, hogs will eat just about anything except pumpkins, though some people will report hogs eating pumpkins. A real favorite is watermelons, only every time I have tried watermelons, the deer and raccoons have eaten them long before any hogs ever arrived. The hogs I had on camera did not show up early because I had put out watermelons. They actually showed up a couple of hours later than normal, only the rinds being left on the melons, LOL.
Additional case and point, I have set up feeders in new locations, twice, and used miracle attractants and strangely no hogs miraculously appeared. In 6 weeks of testing, hogs never appeared at one feeder and at the other feeder, it took two weeks for hogs to find it, despite the use of strawberry jello mixed with corn.
Usually, when I see people using one of these special baits and claims how well it works, they are using the bait at a location where they have already been baiting hogs, sometimes for years. There success with the bait is just confirmation bias. That a hog came in after the bait was deployed is not a testament to the effectiveness of the bait when the location was already a baiting locality. It is more of a testament to the location being a known feeding spot.
Also, that the hogs ate the bait does not mean that it was a more effective attractant than just plain corn. Hogs eat a lot of stuff, including their own dead.
And yes, I am familiar with the arguments that hogs love fruity smells and that hogs can smell X, Y, and Z for several miles, but chances are you aren't going to attract hogs from several miles. Either you have hogs in the immediate area or you don't.
Bottom line, if miracle "super baits" truly worked better than just plain old corn baiting, we would all be using them and Texas would not have a hog problem. You can use them if it makes you happy.
