My New Mouse Trap--Nature's Own Design

[Chip Euliss]

Good day for mousing.  First saw him(her) just outside the front door and took this pic with an iPhone.  We have about 7 or 8 bluebird/tree swallow nest boxes around the house and mice get in them each winter.  My wife and I watched this long tailed weasel go up the poles that held the bird houses and go inside.  After a few minutes, he would haul out several mice he'd killed, one-by-one, and then he stashed them in a burrow in our flower bed.  There was a shrike following him around trying to steal one of his mice but the weasel outsmarted him.  Little bugger should eat well for the next few days

[Bakersdozen]

Smart little guy!  He needs a name.

[Chip Euliss]

I agree he needs a nice name but I'm not good with coming up with nice names.  He seems to be a very busy and cheerful fellow but I suspect the mice have already named him the Grim Reaper

[Les]

I only saw a weasel once while hunting.  Stuck his head out of the rock wall and hissed at me!  Nasty critters, I would call him Dead LOL!  Not really, I hate to mess with nature, everything has to eat, as long as it doesn't slink into the bluebird box and kill baby birds! 

[robo]

Stuck his head out of the rock wall and hissed at me!

Just hissed and not screamed, you got off easy.

This sucker beheaded 5 guinea hens in 2 days.

[Les]

Holy moly, sounds as bad as the guinea hens!

[Chip Euliss]

With the exception of skunks, all members of the weasel family are tough critters.  Somebody posted a video on Facebook the other day of a wolverine killing and dragging a coyote from someone's front lawn (rural) in Alaska!

[CBT]

I'll take a honey bagger in my corner. They are tough SOBs

[neillsayers]

We have mink here. Locals call them weasels and they are part of the family like skunks. Telltale sign-they will slip into a henhouse and kill many if not most of them, lick up the blood and leave the carnage behind.

[Lburou]

A long time ago in rural Wyoming, I noticed a musty smell as I entered the garage.   Nothing else was out of the ordinary save the dressed deer hanging from the ceiling, it was hunting season.  After three days of the musty smell and upon entering the garage, I caught a glimpse of a weasel on the deer carcass eating a hole in the left shoulder.  You could have put a baseball in that hole.  Those weasels can sure move fast!  I welcome anything that eats mice and voles.   

[Chip Euliss]

Me too Lee.  They are surplus killers so they will clean out an area if their prey is fairly accessible and move on.  Years ago, we had two and they raised some little ones.  I kept the barn door raised an inch or two and we were mouse free in a matter of weeks.  After they reduced the mouse population, they left for greener pastures.  Your story reminds me of a few years ago.  Our deer are so fat that after we cut all the meat off, we hang the fatty carcasses in a tree a short distance from the house.  Woodpeckers and lots of other small birds eat on it all winter.  The year I remember was when a long tailed weasel would eat on it almost every day for a month.  They're great climbers!