Shrews are tiny mammals common across the US. They can benefit a yard or garden by dining on snails, slugs, and insect pests.
If a pesky shrew gets into your garage or house, it can cause significant damage or spread disease. Don’t try to catch this creature with your bare hands. Although this animal is small, it is swift and aggressive and can deliver a painful bite.
Don’t know how to scare shrews away and what control products to use? Follow our tips and methods, which will help you to make away with shrews in a fast way.
Shrew Control: Working Products and Solutions
Shrews are often mistaken for mice, especially when they move into vacated mouse nest sites. Once inside the mouse house, they love to eat mice and live where the mouse once lived.
When shrews are present inside your home, they usually leave a strong, unpleasant pungent odor in places where they act. The smell – solid and pungent – comes from shrews’ anal glands. The best way to describe what a shrew smells is to say that this creature smells like a skunk. As a rule, these animals use smell as a defense mechanism and to mark their territory.
The best way to solve a shrew problem is to take preventative measures to “rodent-proof” your property.
If you don’t want them to move inside your house, you are to:
- Remove shrew entry points by filling holes and crevices;
- Eliminate their favorite habitats by removing brush.
No matter where shrews are – inside or outside the house, these ill-tempered rodents can cause significant damage.
Trapping is the most effective control for pesky shrews. There are two types of traps that work on shrews. And it would help if you decided what to choose – a kill trap or a humane live trap.
Effective Trapping Ideas for inside and outside Control
What to buy:
1. Havahart Live Animal Two-Door Mouse Cage Trap
Havahart 1020 Cage Trap is designed to trap the smallest critters like shrews and mice quickly. The trap is straightforward to operate. Everyone can capture, transport, and release shrews with ease.
Safety
The trap is a humane and safe tool for removing tiny rodents from your property.
Where to Place
You can place this humane trap along a shrew’s path or against a wall. The trap can also be set with 1 door open. In this case, it should be placed in front of an entryway to catch shrews as they venture inside.
2. Grandpa Gus’s Plastic Catch & Release Rodent Trap
Grandpa Gus’ is a perfect trap with a straightforward design. The trap has a second door so that you can catch shrews from both directions. The trap is easy to use – no snap, mess, or touch. The simple step-by-step instructions will teach you how to bait the following trap in less than 10 seconds. No need to pinch your fingers in dirty trap snaps and touch dead rodents. Release a rodent humanely and simply.
3. Rat Zapper Electronic High-Voltage Shock Rat Trap
Rat Zapper Kill Trap has wide open, comfortable-for-shrews-to-enter entrances. The trap has a special light for easy monitoring, which makes it easy for the trapper to know when it is on and when it has gone off.
Where to Place the Trap?
Before trapping shrews, determine a location. Those with an outdoor shrew problem should place a shrew trap at the burrow’s entrance where a shrew is residing. When it comes to indoor trapping, the best location to set a shrew trap is along the wall where you have noticed signs of shrew activity.
How to Bait the Trap?
Once you have the perfect trap for shrews, you must find the ideal bait for these nuisance critters. These little rodents are voracious eaters, so that many items can serve as effective shrew trap bait.
The best ones include:
- Earthworms
- Hot dog slices
- Bacon
- Peanut butter
A tip to consider: Spreading a mixture of rolled oats with a well-known peanut butter on your trap’s trigger mechanism is the best way to prevent instances of stolen bait.
It’s perfect to match the bait you use in the trap to what the shrews find in or around your home. There are several choices you can consider. If you find fruits or vegetables indoors or outdoors being attacked, we suggest using some Loganberry paste. If you have nuts on your property from bird feeders or trees, use Pecan Paste.
How to Set the Trap?
A shrew trap should be set according to the instructions included with the trap.
Relocation: If you don’t want to leave a shrew trapped longer than necessary, check the trap twice a day. After trapping, transport the rodent to some wooded area far away from your property.
Effective Repellents for Shrew Control
Whether you want to keep destructive groundhogs from entering your lawn or yard or drive these pests out, an effective repellent may be a good option.
Review the groundhog repelling options below and choose which solution is best for you:
1. Shake-Away Rodent Repellent Granules
Shake-Away is an easy-to-use granular rodent repellent. The product safely repels shrews by using predator scent. Special non-toxic urine granules create the illusion that a predator animal is present in your yard or garden. When a shrew detects a predator’s scent, it avoids the treated area.
2. P3 International MoleChaser Vibrasonic Pest Repeller
Mole Chaser is an efficient repeller to get rid of pesky shrews. The product is made of sturdy materials. It penetrates sonic pulses and effectively removes shrews. Sonic pulses of the device irritate shrews and motivate them to choose a more comfortable place.
Shrew Poison
When we think of venomous creatures – that come in various shapes and sizes – the first creatures that come to our mind are scorpions, snakes or spiders. Have you ever thought that a shrew is also evil?
Shrew poison is present in the saliva. Shrew produces venom, which it uses to disable or kill prey or to defend itself from predators. When this evil creature bites its victim, the saliva – poison – is introduced into the wounds.
As a rule, shrew venom is used for hunting large prey. Unlike venomous snakes, who can inject the venom in 1 bite through their fangs, shrews must chew the venom into the prey.
Shrew poison is strong enough to cache prey in an unconscious state and to kill mice. What about humans? According to testing, shrew saliva doesn’t seriously affect humans. A bite from this small animal would be painful, and you may have swelling that lasts for a few days.
Although these creatures don’t have a negative impact on humans, they are naturally very aggressive and can attack pets or birds. They sometimes get into the homes by squeezing in small entry points. Because of shrews’ aggressive nature and sharp teeth, they can kill and disable animals even larger than themselves.
Safety: Don’t attempt to pick a shrew up if you have it in your home. Remember, they can bite if improperly handled.
Shrews are a persistent pest. If you own a natural yard or landscape rich with seeds, nuts, wildlife, and insects, chances are high that these critters will like to live there. If left unchecked, shrews will move inside your home.
- Remove them by sealing off any available entrance holes.
- Reduce shrews’ infestation by using humane live or kill traps combined with baits.
