Interesting read, thanks! I would let the animal go, it hunts snakes thus on the same level of usefulness like hedgehogs and mongooses. I know that it has no ears, but vibrations from mice sound repellant should scare it. Or smell repellant, because it navigates by smelling, like peppermint oil?

Damn, as I was reading your account, I was thinking that maybe you had a small squirrel or perhaps a mole of some type on the premises...but wasn't expecting a shrew, lol. Your tale was quite an enjoyable read btw. It brought up a memory of mine from last Summer, when I came home and found a creature hunkered down against my garage, that I thought for sure was some alien species deposited by a flying saucer on my property. I caught it, and placed it in a bucket to grab a couple pictures before taking quite a while to find out what it was after a decent online investigation. It was a Mole Cricket....one of the oddest critters I have ever come across in my neck of the woods face to face.

Just call in an airstrike.

I don't think they're a pest, though that also depends on their habits. AFAIK they're mostly carnivorous and eat worms and rodents and insects. As long as they don't set up their homes in yours, they may be useful to have around. Although, seeing one going for human food, that isn't too promising. And, if it didn't have eyes, it probably lives underground, where it won't need them as much, which pushes more toward the question of how and why it came into your house.

Also, I think they use their venom (its injected, so its venom right?) to paralyze their prey and keep them fresh until they're hungry enough to kill them.

I don't have much advice though, but I've seen what they can do. Mice eat almost anything so just hiding food isn't good enough. They'll chew through anything and use what they can't eat for their ''nests'' or whatever they're called.

Cool story! I hope you get rid of those pesky invaders soon. I have never heard of a shrew, sounds like something I would not want to deal with :P

Here in Greece we don't have major problems with insects and vermins. The most usual case are ants and cockroaches during summer season. Especially cockroaches, it is very likely to notice them in big cities, out in the open, when it's hot outside. Out in the country snakes are a possible encounter but the majority of them are not poisonous. It's not really a big deal, a couple of cockroaches may appear in summer in my house and that's it. The flying ones are really creepy and annoying to be honest, these mean trouble but yeah, we survive.

Poisonous mammal that doesn't listen...

<Insert mother-in-law joke here>

Your writing was so lovely that I thoroughly enjoyed reading your tale of woe, sorry! I have found the best way to avoid unwanted visitors is to address why they are there in the first place. Remove the access to food, water, warmth and pests will go elsewhere to survive. You are now seeing predators coming to feed on small prey in your home and probably outside. I would not be surprised if you had snakes also. Look around your house for entryways into house, tho a mouse can squeeze in thru the tiniest cracks. If they have found homes within your walls you may need to address this also by removing the drywall and vacuuming their nests. They also have to have access to water or moisture, find out where thats happening and stop it. Be prepared to root out stashes of stolen seed/food in your nooks and crannies which continue to pull in new pests. Your home may be in a natural biome for the pests as well which only adds to invasions. If you live in an apt complex there is not much you can do cuz neighbors cant be controlled.

good luck and i look forward to hearing of the next monster ....creeping up on you... now

I once lived in a house that had been damaged by an earthquake (I think it wasn't too damaged to live in, but I wasn't the owner, so I have no idea how things went with the insurance company etc).
At any rate, soon after, we had a serious mouse problem. The buggers just entered through some cracks (nothing huge, they can apparently squeeze through the tiniest holes in the cellar etc, and once they're in, they really are in). We fixed the holes with some gooey stuff and mortar and went a-hunting :)
Oh, fun times... Well, we got rid of them in the end. Luckily, I'm not scared of small rodents, but it's still icky to find mouse poo everywhere and find they nibbled on some food here and there (and really bloody unsanitary).

Now, I've not met a shrew myself, but I've heard of them.

Edit: After reading morolf's comment, I googled them, but that must be a mistranslation... Spitzmaus? They are very cute and mouse-like... The Canadian variant must be some sort of dark evil cousin of the European one...

That's an extremely cruel method to use, better off with traps that kill.

Between sticky and clamp traps, I would say sticky have more success rate due to more surface area (based on personal experience). You can always smack it to death.

Sure, smack it to death after it's spent many hours, probably all night, fighting for it's life, breaking bones as it tries to escape and suffering from shock.

There's no need to be cruel, other methods that immediately kill the critter are just as effective if used correctly.

Hating on the mice right now. They're in the attic, and I am fed up of killing them...
They keep me awake with their nocturnal shenanigans...

Maybe you should have kept it and get rid of your traps instead ;-P

Rent "Mouse Hunt".

I'd give you a link but....well I no longer can do that.

It's probably the only one I'm likely to ever see since I've never seen one in my life so far, and I've lived in this city my whole life and in this particular home for 14 years. No signs of any more critters in the house since, and with the many varieties of traps I have set about any new critters that get in will most likely get caught alive or dead within hours to a few days tops I reckon. It really bothers me that they get in at all, but it is only since 2012 or so that any have got into the house, so something has changed since 2012 or so outside. I'm going to go out this week and do a good eyeballing of the exterior of the building looking for loose soffit & faschia, etc. as that's the most likely type of entry point. This is a brick building built in the late 1970s and it is well built with no cracks in the foundations or walls, so kind of surprising that they even find a way in. If I can't track the entry point down though, pest control will be called in for sure. This really needs to stop because I finish washing all my pots and pans etc. in the lower shelves then the next day I spot mice and have to rewash half the house because I find mouse poop in the cupboards. Very frustrating. I ended up buying storage bins to put all my pots and pans in until the problem can be resolved.

The only consolation I have is if I catch one in the live traps and get to personally determine what their fate will be. I say that in terms that are Geneva convention friendly, but I'm rather certain that their actual fate most certainly is not. I've said too much. :)

They came free with the steel live-catch traps I bought as an entertaining bonus item, kind of like DVD extras. Only one sticky trap left, although the live-catch traps are a real hoot too. I can't say what happens to them after they're caught, but I can say that they aren't set free outside to go wander into someone else's home and spread hanta virus to their children.

Oh no no no! It's much more sinister than that. Muahahahahhahaa...

I'm contemplating changing my nickname to... <wait for it...>


The Mouse Whisperer


Although, I might have to use underscores or studlyCaps to make that work. :)