Guildedagain
Enlightened Member
So yesterday I'm sitting at the computer in the morning having coffee, and I think I see something run under our rustic old gas cooking stove on legs.
So I'm thinking, it's either a mouse, or a big spider, or a hallucination.
I get a Dewalt searchlight and I look around, make banging noises on the side of the stove to see if something comes running back out, nothing.
Maybe a hallucination?
So I set a mousetrap anyway, just to be on the safe side, and an hour or so later, it's upside down, but fairly flat like there's nothing in it.
So I grab it and flip it over and there is something in it. A shrew. How in the h did this thing get in the house?
And then I research them, because I'm not sure what they are, and it turns out they're not a rodent, but a tiny carnivore that has poisonous saliva that paralyzes its victims, keeping some alive for 15 days to have fresh food on hand.
They go after things much bigger than they are like snakes, and they win. They're hyper little buggers, can do 12 movements a second with a hearbeat that can hit 1500 BPM>
They're actually beneficial in the garden because they eat other pests.
Not this one though.
They don't see good and they use their whiskers to know when to bite prey.
en.wikipedia.org
"Shrews are unusual among mammals in a number of respects. Unlike most mammals, some species of shrews are venomous. Shrew venom is not conducted into the wound by fangs, but by grooves in the teeth. The venom contains various compounds, and the contents of the venom glands of the American short-tailed shrew are sufficient to kill 200 mice by intravenous injection. One chemical extracted from shrew venom may be potentially useful in the treatment of high blood pressure, while another compound may be useful in the treatment of some neuromuscular diseases and migraines.[11] The saliva of the northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) contains soricidin, a peptide which has been studied for use in treating ovarian cancer.[12]"
So I'm thinking, it's either a mouse, or a big spider, or a hallucination.
I get a Dewalt searchlight and I look around, make banging noises on the side of the stove to see if something comes running back out, nothing.
Maybe a hallucination?
So I set a mousetrap anyway, just to be on the safe side, and an hour or so later, it's upside down, but fairly flat like there's nothing in it.
So I grab it and flip it over and there is something in it. A shrew. How in the h did this thing get in the house?
And then I research them, because I'm not sure what they are, and it turns out they're not a rodent, but a tiny carnivore that has poisonous saliva that paralyzes its victims, keeping some alive for 15 days to have fresh food on hand.
They go after things much bigger than they are like snakes, and they win. They're hyper little buggers, can do 12 movements a second with a hearbeat that can hit 1500 BPM>
They're actually beneficial in the garden because they eat other pests.
Not this one though.
They don't see good and they use their whiskers to know when to bite prey.
Shrew - Wikipedia
"Shrews are unusual among mammals in a number of respects. Unlike most mammals, some species of shrews are venomous. Shrew venom is not conducted into the wound by fangs, but by grooves in the teeth. The venom contains various compounds, and the contents of the venom glands of the American short-tailed shrew are sufficient to kill 200 mice by intravenous injection. One chemical extracted from shrew venom may be potentially useful in the treatment of high blood pressure, while another compound may be useful in the treatment of some neuromuscular diseases and migraines.[11] The saliva of the northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) contains soricidin, a peptide which has been studied for use in treating ovarian cancer.[12]"
