Tunn11
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2005
- Messages
- 2,233
- Location
- Under the highest tree top in Kent
Probably the last weird thing to happen to me, for now at least.
Summer 2020 late August, after the heat wave so temperatures near normal for the season. Late afternoon, I was in our hall when I thought I saw a leaf on the floor (wood flooring) I bent to pick it up but as I was recovering from surgery I wasn’t very quick. The “leaf” scurried away. My first thought was; “ that’s a small mouse.” And I shut the doors to the kitchen and living room and opened the front door with the idea of chasing it out.
I know from experience that these doors shut tightly enough to stop a mouse so I was surprised when the critter, with a little effort got through into the kitchen. At this point I realised that it was a shrew. I’ve honestly caught bigger spiders. It vanished under the fridge at which point Mrs T came in and we started devising a shrew capturing strategy. However shrews, or these ones at least are not as fast as mice and much bolder. As it emerged from under the fridge I was able to drop a shoe box (part of the shrew capturing strategy) over it. Some thin card was slid under the box and the shrew was released into a flower bed where it could resume its hunt for its enormous requirement of worms, slugs, etc.
Two hours later we were watching TV when a shrew emerged from under a bookcase. As we stood up it made its way toward the hall and kitchen. I thought it had gone under another bookcase, Mrs T thought it had made it to the kitchen. As I repeated the trick with the shoe box on bookcase shrew Mrs T was watching another shrew in the kitchen. Bookcase shrew was deposited in the garden and kitchen shrew was also caught and similarly evicted. So there were at least two. As we were going to bed another shrew was seen in the kitchen. The door was shut and “shrewproofed” with card in the gaps.
The kitchen shrew was not seen again and we’ve never seen a shrew in the house before or since. We are fairly rural and activity on the farm opposite can result in rats, mice and feral cats heading our way until things settle. I’ve thrown a woodpecker out of the conservatory and re located a sleepy dormouse from the conservatory to the greenhouse where he/she resided for a few days eating birdseed and muesli – someone’s got to – before departing. I’ve seen shrews and voles in the garden but never the house.
Mrs T found two dead shrews in the garden the next day, one with a head injury, maybe post mortem as I gather they are not good to eat even if you are a fox or crow. Whether they were “our“ shrews or not I don’t know.
Thinking all this a bit odd I looked them up, they are protected and unlike rats or mice have no reason to come into houses as their diet is mainly slugs, worms, etc. I found a government “shrew death reporting form”, which may be the most Fortean thing about this, but decided that it was only for those registered to deal with them to report mishaps. I also ‘phoned our local pest control firm who we have used for the various mouse and wasp invasions to see whether he had dealt with anything similar. He is not licensed to deal with shrews and said he has never had to, only once seeing one in a garage, which, he said seemed very eager to depart.
Not a perhaps a particularly weird event but strange animal behaviour that perhaps may be of interest?
Summer 2020 late August, after the heat wave so temperatures near normal for the season. Late afternoon, I was in our hall when I thought I saw a leaf on the floor (wood flooring) I bent to pick it up but as I was recovering from surgery I wasn’t very quick. The “leaf” scurried away. My first thought was; “ that’s a small mouse.” And I shut the doors to the kitchen and living room and opened the front door with the idea of chasing it out.
I know from experience that these doors shut tightly enough to stop a mouse so I was surprised when the critter, with a little effort got through into the kitchen. At this point I realised that it was a shrew. I’ve honestly caught bigger spiders. It vanished under the fridge at which point Mrs T came in and we started devising a shrew capturing strategy. However shrews, or these ones at least are not as fast as mice and much bolder. As it emerged from under the fridge I was able to drop a shoe box (part of the shrew capturing strategy) over it. Some thin card was slid under the box and the shrew was released into a flower bed where it could resume its hunt for its enormous requirement of worms, slugs, etc.
Two hours later we were watching TV when a shrew emerged from under a bookcase. As we stood up it made its way toward the hall and kitchen. I thought it had gone under another bookcase, Mrs T thought it had made it to the kitchen. As I repeated the trick with the shoe box on bookcase shrew Mrs T was watching another shrew in the kitchen. Bookcase shrew was deposited in the garden and kitchen shrew was also caught and similarly evicted. So there were at least two. As we were going to bed another shrew was seen in the kitchen. The door was shut and “shrewproofed” with card in the gaps.
The kitchen shrew was not seen again and we’ve never seen a shrew in the house before or since. We are fairly rural and activity on the farm opposite can result in rats, mice and feral cats heading our way until things settle. I’ve thrown a woodpecker out of the conservatory and re located a sleepy dormouse from the conservatory to the greenhouse where he/she resided for a few days eating birdseed and muesli – someone’s got to – before departing. I’ve seen shrews and voles in the garden but never the house.
Mrs T found two dead shrews in the garden the next day, one with a head injury, maybe post mortem as I gather they are not good to eat even if you are a fox or crow. Whether they were “our“ shrews or not I don’t know.
Thinking all this a bit odd I looked them up, they are protected and unlike rats or mice have no reason to come into houses as their diet is mainly slugs, worms, etc. I found a government “shrew death reporting form”, which may be the most Fortean thing about this, but decided that it was only for those registered to deal with them to report mishaps. I also ‘phoned our local pest control firm who we have used for the various mouse and wasp invasions to see whether he had dealt with anything similar. He is not licensed to deal with shrews and said he has never had to, only once seeing one in a garage, which, he said seemed very eager to depart.
Not a perhaps a particularly weird event but strange animal behaviour that perhaps may be of interest?
