Pygmy shrew house guest

VeeEmmy

A pygmy shrew started coming into my house and into a favourite wire mesh wastepaper bin last September. I put him/her back outside on 3 different occasions. Didn't see it again... until "mouse season" when, sadly, the traps caught 3 of them. I didn't think they'd be drawn to peanut butter since their diet is insects and invertebrates. (I've stopped using mouse traps...)

Anyway, s/he (or a friend) is back and staying in apparently. I wonder what is the appeal of my house? I don't have many insects/invertebrates or water, so I wonder if it doesn't know how to get out and worry if it is finding food. Apparently, they have to eat constantly due to their high metabolism.

It's not using the wire mesh bin this time, so I'm not able to catch it to put it outside where its real food is.

I'm soft-hearted, so I've put food & water in a niche for it - dried mealworms and the concoction I put out for the robins and baby birds. I checked today, and every crumb is gone. I refilled. (There's no evidence of mice.)

Has anyone else had them come indoors?
Am I asking for trouble, i.e., word gets around the pygmy shrew neighbourhood that there's a stash of easy food in here? Maternity ward, etc.?
Any recommendations for effective, inexpensive humane traps so I won't kill any more lil shrews?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Oh you really need to get it outside. This is peak breeding season and they have two litters of about six each time. They live for just about a year and, as you said, need to eat constantly. Your feeding it is great but it needs it's natural food.

I'm not sure what you could now catch it with. Maybe tempt it towards the exit by moving food closer to the door.

VeeEmmy

Thanks for your comments, Srameen. I agree. I also think I shouldn't feed it, and maybe that would motivate it to find its way back out. It came in via some teeny critter-accommodating opening (old house) that I have yet to locate.
What in the world could be appealing about the inside of a house with no stacks of wood, leaves, etc? There are ideal nooks and crannies and loads of bugs, worms, etc outside!

junospider

Are you sure its a pygmy shrew? We had a white toothed shrew in here.
They are displacing the native pygmy shrew and are spreading rapidly through the country.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

As with all things the obvious answer is usual the correct answer. White toothed shrew are not yet recorded in Wexford.

VeeEmmy

junospider wrote: »

Are you sure its a pygmy shrew? We had a white toothed shrew in here. They are displacing the native pygmy shrew and are spreading rapidly through the country.

Based on the knowledge that Srameen notes re: Wexford, and my examination of one of my mouse trap victims which definitely had the red/orange tinge on its teeth, I am confident that my current little visitor is a pygmy shrew.

My desire to protect my squatter is precisely because of the increasing invasion of the white toothed shrew, and it's also tinged with guilt for the ones I unwittingly eliminated with mouse traps.

junospider, how did you get rid of your shrew?

junospider

Caught him in a mousetrap with peanut butter.Place is full of them here.
The dogs have killed too many to count.

VeeEmmy

As yours are the greater white toothed variety, that's a reasonable method, and the dogs are a natural agent.
I asked in case you used a humane method that I might try.