My yard is a dangerous place

S

stargazer65

New member
My yard is a dangerous place. Filled with venomous, viscous creatures:

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Quote from wikipedia:
Shrews have sharp, spike-like teeth, not the familiar gnawing front incisor teeth of rodents. Shrew venom is not conducted into the wound by fangs, but by grooves in the teeth. The venom contains various compounds and the contents of the venom glands of the American short-tailed shrew are sufficient to kill 200 mice by intravenous injection. Shrews are fiercely territorial, driving off rivals, and only coming together to mate.
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I put one down the other day, he actually got into the house. Baited him with cereal and a glue trap. When he got stuck I attempted to take him outside and dispatch him with my Crossman pistol. He actually ripped free of the trap and my wife and I tried to beat him down with a stick, but that didn't work. Finally I had a clear shot and popped him with a .177 hollow point. He now laid still. I cautiously approached and popped him with another to make sure. The beast was finally dead. Anyway, if any of them get into your house, I recommend rat traps vice mice traps. They're pretty tough little buggers.
 

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Rats and mice are classified as Generalists; which means that they will eat just about anythng. Shrews on the other hand, "Love" to eat meat. They will even eat a rat or mouse, that is caught in a trap. They will eat their own kind as well. Pound for pound, you will not find a fiercer animal.



Be Safe !!!
 
When I was a senior in college, my partner had a couple of shrews in a terrarium in our living room, for a comparative psych. project. They were fascinating to watch -- until the night that one of them killed the other and ate its brains. :eek:
 
until the night that one of them killed the other and ate its brains.
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Great, now I'm gonna have nightmares about that shrew coming back from the dead to eat my brains.:eek:

Pahoo said:
Pound for pound, you will not find a fiercer animal.
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I'm glad they aren't the size of Grizzly:
From Wikipedia:
Shrews must eat 80-90 % of their own body weight in food daily.
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That would be unpleasant: 1000 Lb ill tempered, vicious, posionous mammal that eats 800-900# of food daily...and lives in your backyard, and sometimes sneeks into the kitchen.:eek:

To troy: I'm sure they do kill all kinds of nasties, I just want them to do it outside.;)
 
I found a shrew is my basement window well once. When it saw me, it ran in circles for a second, then had a heart attack and died.
Any critter that has to eat 3 times its weight every day to keep the engine running has my respect. Let those little buggers go, they tend to fuel up by eating insects.
 
They attract more vermin than they dispatch around here at least. . . a favorite snack for rattlesnakes. I killed one last week with a shrew in its jaws just getting ready to be swallowed. They also dig incessantly and have eroded a hill slope. Soon as I find something more friendly than rattlesnakes that eats these things, I'll be adopting some. A friend mentioned his cats bring many back to the house. Guess it's time to turn fluffy loose!
 
until the night that one of them killed the other and ate its brains.
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Not sure why they do this but have found trapped mice in this same state. I guess it's an aquired taste. Hey look, it's nature and I'm okay with that. I think I once saw an old movie about giant shrews that were loose in a town.

Be Safe !!!
 
King Snakes it is then. I just happen to know a couple of guys who with a sufficient bounty would catch and deliver any critter that lives around here. Great idea . . .thanks guys!
 
How about corn snakes, do they eat shrews? We have at least one around, my wife found it in the shed. Ironically, I had just picked up an 8 ft length of foam rubber pipe insulation that day just before I came home, and saw her bent over looking into the shed at something. I poked her on the shoulder with the insulation to ask what she was looking at and she jumped 3 ft in the air, yelled, and danced a funny jig. Scared me half to death.:D
 
Well, I found a tarantula living under my back porch last night. Normally wouldn't bother me, but I have a 10 year old and two dogs. So he will be encouraged to leave.
Shews...hmm, other than the female variety, I have had no experience with that creature here in the desert.
 
From Wikipedia:
Shrews must eat 80-90 % of their own body weight in food daily.
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Yah, shrew metabolisms are scary. For that project, we used to trap them by going into the woods and burying plastic gallon jars flush with the ground anywhere that looked like it might be a shrew trail. You then had to stay up all night and check the traps hourly, because the trapped shrews would starve to death in about two hours.

Not long after that, I saw a movie on late night TV about a mad scientist who was breeding giant shrews on an island (Prob'ly that same movie, Pahoo -- how many "giant shrew" movies could there be...) -- I remember thinking that the movie had it all wrong: if you could breed really small ones, their metabolic rate would be infinite, and they'd destroy the earth by sucking all the oxygen out of the atmosphere...
:D
 
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And, are you going to do a full body mount?
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LOL No, just the head. I can hang it on the wall in my daughter's doll house. Why waste the meat? I can just roast it on a tiny spit, if it's good maybe I can even open a restaurant:

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Tasty!:p
 

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