Stoat in the house

[Robochelle]

Hey, we discovered a brazen little stoat in our house. Flits about where we can see it, too fast to catch. Too big for mouse traps, too small for our live trap meant for escapee bunnies... what's the best way to catch em?

 

[MnCanary]

A stoat IS a mouse trap. They eat mice and voles. They can really do damage if you have poultry. And according to the internet, young rabbits.

There is a lot of information about trapping them: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+trap+a+stoat

 

[BuffBrahmaBantam]

Do you mean a weasel? We’ve caught weasels in Sherman traps and tomahawk traps. We have a few of each trap set up 24-7-365 outside on our property. We are very rural and would be overwhelmed by critters if we didn‘t trap regularly. Anyway, it is best to put traps alongside natural runways, like alongside a wall. Small mammals naturally run alongside logs (and buildings) for cover, and less often across openings. So your best chance is to place traps alongside walls or other long linear objects.

A snap-type rat trap may work if you think the animal is too big for a mouse-sized trap. Good luck. Those type animals can be devilishly hard to catch.

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

Do you mean a weasel?

A stoat is like a weasel but a bit bigger

 

[Robochelle]

We got him! Rat trap for the win... though if anyone else is trying to catch a stoat be warned that it wasn't an instant kill.

Don't know what weasels usually measure, or stoat was about 4-5 inches long.

 

[MaggieJ]

I often have a weasel in the house in winter. I welcome them ... they clean out any rats and mice in short order. Reliable, expense-free extermination of pesky rodents -- what's not to like about that? They'll move on when the supply of mice and rats runs out.

 

[Alaska Satin]

I often have a weasel in the house in winter. I welcome them ... they clean out any rats and mice in short order. Reliable, expense-free extermination of pesky rodents -- what's not to like about that? They'll move on when the supply of mice and rats runs out.

Up here at least, weasels are killing machines. They do take care of mice and voles, but I wouldn't want them in my barn! I've had two friends lose many or most of their rabbits to ermine. It's incredible since ermine are only about 6-8 inches long, including the tail.

In one case, the weasel moved from cage to cage biting the rabbits' faces and necks. She lost three New Zealands - yes, full-size New Zealands! - and four mini rex, with another mini rex living a few days before succumbing to her wounds. The weasel did not eat any of the rabbits, just killed them.

The other friend lost an entire litter of grow-out Californians. He thought one of the rabbits was attacking the others when he found massive face injuires on a couple of the bunnies. The next day the weasel got back into the grow-out cage and killed every one of them. It was a bloodbath.

 

[MaggieJ]

Up here at least, weasels are killing machines. They do take care of mice and voles, but I wouldn't want them in my barn! I've had two friends lose many or most of their rabbits to ermine. It's incredible since ermine are only about 6-8 inches long, including the tail.

I no longer have any outdoor animals due to increased mobilitiy issues, but I only lost a couple of chickens to weasels and that was when the rat infestation was over. It's not pleasant to lose even one bird or rabbit, but the rats accounted for far more than the weasels did.

So my experience has been quite different from yours. It may be a question of location. It may be that weasels around here find rats easier or tastier than chickens or rabbits. I've never seen a weasel wantonly kill for the sake of killing. Not saying it doesn't happen, just that that has not happened here.

We had a mink get into our rabbit colony in the shed. It killed and partially ate one doe before we found out about the problem when my son went to feed the rabbits. It certainly had time to kill more rabbits, but it didn't. We dispatched the mink, and much later found out if was almost certainly from a neighbouring mink farm that we didn't know existed. Again, not in keeping with the mink's reputation as a bloodthirsty killing machine.