Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Pesky Short Tailed Shrew

By: Tom Berg

There is a common pest in the Midwest and northeastern United States that causes trouble for gardeners during the summer months. They are small – about the size of a mouse. They are usually black or dark gray in color, and as their name implies they have a very short tail. Their most annoying habit is they dig holes in gardens and flower beds, sometimes leaving them looking like Swiss cheese. What are these critters? Are they moles? Voles? Mice? Gophers?

Actually, they are none of the above. They are short-tailed shrews. Shrews live underground like moles, but they are much smaller. Although they are great diggers, shrews have much smaller front feet and claws than moles. Their eyes and ears are extremely small (almost unseen), which makes them easy to distinguish from voles, too. Voles look very similar to common field mice, since they have large ears, large eyes and a long tail.

Shrews eat a variety of things, but they are fierce predators and they prefer meat. Their main diet includes earthworms, insects, snails, slugs and even mice and other shrews. Their incredibly high metabolism allows them to eat up to three times their own weight each day! Wow! Shrews also eat seeds, which is why they are often seen foraging under bird feeders for fallen sunflower seeds.

An interesting fact about the short-tailed shrew is that it is one of the few venomous mammals in North America. Their saliva contains a specialized neurotoxic poison that paralyzes their prey after they bite it.  Then they can eat it at their leisure. Although one shrew possesses enough poison to kill up to 200 mice, they are fairly harmless to humans. A shrew bite would be painful, but nothing more.

To get rid of shrews, set a mousetrap near one of their holes and bait it with peanut butter. To make it even more appealing to them, imbed a few sunflower seeds in the peanut butter and wait. Since they are always hungry, it shouldn’t take long. 

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