Shrews

[geordief]

I caught the tiniest little shrew in one of those "catch them alive" mouse traps .

The previous fella having somehow escaped out of the trap ,I removed this one expeditiously and in the dark of the night to the very bottom of the garden and released it into the cold grass.

Later,it occurred to me "would it actually survive?"

After all ,it had been uprooted from its comfort area and ,likely its fellow shrews/family(?) in its territory .

I couldn't keep it in the house as not everyone would tolerate that but could there have been any "kinder" way of disposing of the little creature?

I don't normally use thise traps -just the common or garden spring loaded "snap and you are dead" traps or poison if necessary .I got this trap as an extra mechanism to remove mice but did not anticipate tiny shrews getting in.

 

[exchemist]

I caught the tiniest little shrew in one of those "catch them alive" mouse traps .

The previous fella having somehow escaped out of the trap ,I removed this one expeditiously and in the dark of the night to the very bottom of the garden and released it into the cold grass.

Later,it occurred to me "would it actually survive?"

After all ,it had been uprooted from its comfort area and ,likely its fellow shrews/family(?) in its territory .

I couldn't keep it in the house as not everyone would tolerate that but could there have been any "kinder" way of disposing of the little creature?

I don't normally use thise traps -just the common or garden spring loaded "snap and you are dead" traps or poison if necessary .I got this trap as an extra mechanism to remove mice but did not anticipate tiny shrews getting in.

According to this it should be OK: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/mammals/common-shrew
- provided it was an adult at least. They don't give dimensions in that link, so not sure how you could tell.

 

[geordief]

According to this it should be OK: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/mammals/common-shrew
- provided it was an adult at least. They don't give dimensions in that link, so not sure how you could tell.

I think it was an adult as it was brave enough to come up from beneath the floorboards.
Hard to imagine how tiny its brood might be if it has one somewhere in the house.

Didn't know,but hardly surprised that they were very aggressive.

It has some long grass to investigate now ,worms and insects to feed on and shelter at hand no doubt.

Too far from the house to return I imagine.(I think it may have squeezed in around a window frame that I have now repaired with exterior plaster.-that or via the ventilation bricks)

 

[exchemist]

I think it was an adult as it was brave enough to come up from beneath the floorboards.
Hard to imagine how tiny its brood might be if it has one somewhere in the house.

Didn't know,but hardly surprised that they were very aggressive.

It has some long grass to investigate now ,worms and insects to feed on and shelter at hand no doubt.

Too far from the house to return I imagine.(I think it may have squeezed in around a window frame that I have now repaired with exterior plaster.-that or via the ventilation bricks)

It looks to me as if shrews belong outside anyway, not in your house. Unlike mice. So I wouldn't expect it to breed indoors, based on what that link says. Could it have wandered in by mistake, through a ventilation grille under the floor or something? You might have done it a favour by putting it back outside.

 

[geordief]

It looks to me as if shrews belong outside anyway, not in your house. Unlike mice. So I wouldn't expect it to breed indoors, based on what that link says. Could it have wandered in by mistake, through a ventilation grille under the floor or something? You might have done it a favour by putting it back outside.

YesI always worry about the ventilation brick (and sometimes put a covered poison block there-you can tell if anything has been that way,although the slugs and the millipedes also eat them).
I had a huge rat that came via the warped window frame which caused me to repair it ,stoll leaving a gap large enough for a shrew though which I have now closed.

The rats are big enough to make off with the traps and so I have poison around the house as well (the traps do get the monster rats but it is a ding dong battle for quite a while with the outcome in the balance)

Glad the shrew belongs outside but it will have lost any companions it had probably.