Ice Weasel

"It is true, weasels are pesky."

- Plants vs. Zombies Facebook

Ice Weasel is the twelfth zombie encountered in Frostbite Caves in Plants vs. Zombies 2. It is released by the Weasel Hoarder when damaged and rushes at plants. It can run over ice floes without switching lanes.

Almanac entry
TOUGHNESS: Fragile SPEED: Flighty

Once released, weasels run full speed even over ice floes to nibble your brains.

Skweek-ka-REE!

Overview
An Ice Weasel absorbs 2 normal damage shots. It is slightly slower than a Zombie Chicken and has no degrades.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Player's House: Piñata Party

Far Future: Piñata Party

Frostbite Caves: Days 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30, Icebound Battleground, and Piñata Party

Jurassic Marsh: "Rescue the Gold Bloom" Epic Quest - Step 10

Modern Day: Days 9, 10, 34 and Highway to the Danger Room

Strategies
If you see a Weasel Hoarder in the seed selection screen, be sure to bring at least Fume-shroom, Laser Bean, Spikeweeds, Spikerock, or other AOE plants in your seed slots. Laser Beans can instantly kill all Ice Weasels in a lane as their damage per individual laser beam is the same as an Ice Weasel's health. Fume-shrooms are cheap for preparing the defense fast, and they have a slightly faster firing rate than Laser Beans. It is also recommended to put Wall-nuts in front of the sliders, due to the fact that weasels will run over sliders. Anything you would do to defeat Zombie Chickens may or may not be recommended here, but do not treat them as easy as the chickens as they have eight times more health, which may ruin your strategy in an instant. Snapdragons are recommended (with defensive plants) as well for damaging zombies in a medium area. Lightning Reeds are not recommended due to their low damage output.

Using catapult plants (Cabbage-pult and Kernel-pult) is a bad idea towards Ice Weasels (unless you feed them Plant Food), as they can easily destroy your catapults. This is because their lob shot is slow and the Ice Weasel's speed is fast. Also, avoid using Citrons against them (unless you have Plant Food), as their plasma balls can only hit one Ice Weasel at a time.

Guacodiles are good choices against Ice Weasels. Combining this plant with a Sweet Potato is also a good idea. Once the Sweet Potato gets destroyed and the Ice Weasels get close to the Guacodile, it will rush towards an entire lane. You can also use Hurrikale to push them back to the right side of the screen to slow them down. However, Hurrikale pushes them much back slower than usual zombies.

Bonk Choys can help with defensive plants (preferably Tall-nut or Pea-nut) because they can defeat an Ice Weasel in three punches. However, a large number of Ice Weasels can defeat them because they can only hit one Ice Weasel at a time.

Using Plant Food on Fire Peashooters and Chompers is a good idea, as they can easily kill all overlapping weasels in one lane. If you do not have both of these plants boosted, do not use them.

Endurians are a very effective way of eliminating weasels, as it serves as a strong offense and semi-strong defense. By boosting them, the weasels die almost instantly, and barely take away any damage to the Endurian.

Toadstools can also be useful when handling weasels. Their attack is much faster than a Chomper, and can reach further, providing in fewer problems to deal with. It is recommended you place a defensive plant in front in case they come in large numbers. If the Toadstool chews a zombie with weasels behind it, dig it up and replace or feed it Plant Food, or else you will have to wait 30 seconds until it can eat again, and by or even before the time is up, the weasels will already have reached the plant and just eat it, even if a defensive plant is placed in front of a Toadstool.

Cacti are only somewhat helpful when dealing with Ice Weasels. Cactus' thorn can pierce through three Ice Weasels at once, which is good because there can be a lot of Ice Weasels going for your house at times, too much of which will overwhelm Cacti. The only possible time when Cactus is not a good counter for Ice Weasels is when Cactus hides underground. Its damage underground is just about the same as Spikeweed. Weasels run over Spikeweeds, so they can escape them. Spikerocks can kill them, though. So, a Cactus fed with Plant Food would be best if you plan to deal with these weasels underground. You can also use two Cacti to remove weasels though Spikerock is a cheaper and another alternative way.

Another good idea will be to have five or more Homing Thistles. Since they target the zombies that are closest to the lawn mowers, Homing Thistles can serve to kill the zombies at hand.

Cold Snapdragon is also useful as it can slow nearby Weasel Hoarders and Ice Weasels, making them take longer to get towards the house. It is also immune to being frozen making it a better substitute for tough levels with large amounts of Hunter Zombies and Weasel Hoarders. However, it requires support to deal with Sloth Gargantuars and thrown Yeti Imps.

Hypnotizing the ice weasels is also useful, not only as it prevents the Hypno-shroom from being consumed after a nibble, but it also allow themselves to serve as a distraction to other zombies and saves you sun for your future disposals.

Wasabi Whips are also good because they do 2NDS, the same amount of HP an Ice Weasel has, and attacks fast.

Trivia

 * They were originally called Snow Weasels. However, in Weasel Hoarder's Almanac, they are called snow weasels, weasels, and ice weasels.
 * It is currently the only zombie in Plants vs. Zombies 2 that is referred by three different names.
 * It is the only zombie of Frostbite Caves Part 2 that was featured in an advertisement.
 * Its appearance in the advertisement is different than the released Ice Weasel. The main differences are its nose is black rather than pink, has its mouth open instead of closed, the ears are folded down instead of standing up, and it has eye bags. Also, it doesn't have its two front teeth.
 * In Plants vs. Zombies Facebook, PopCap said they were similar to the Zombie Chickens, and both their weaknesses were Lightning Reed.
 * Both Zombie Chicken and Ice Weasel have similar Almanac entries, as their entries are the onomatopoeic sounds they make.
 * Currently, Frostbite Caves - Day 30 and Modern Day - Day 34 are the only levels where it appears on its own. However, it sometimes does not appear these levels.
 * It has an achievement tied to it: Run Weasley, which requires the player not to let any Ice Weasels cross over any sliders for an entire level.
 * Before the 3.4.4 update, it didn't have an eating animation. It was added after that update.
 * However, this change doesn't apply to the Chinese version.
 * According to the credits, the weasels are voiced by Jesse Cheek, Jason Emery, Mike Janney and Daniel Van Der Welf.