Summary: Believe it or not, rats can get into your toilet bowl and it's not such an uncommon occurence. Finding their way from the street sewer line into your household plumbing is a fairly simple task for a rat.
It's like the old Psycho shower scene. Nobody wants to think about Norman Bates sneaking into their bathroom while showering, but after you're seen that movie you can't help but think about it.
The same lingering fear holds true for stories about rats coming into toilet bowls while we're sitting there minding our business. However, before you give up the convenience of indoor plumbing and start digging latrine holes in your backyard, please read on.
How do rats actually get into the toilet? Well, let's assume it did, in fact, come from the inside of the toilet and that it didn't arrive there from other
entry points and jump into the toilet looking for a drink. (Rats require water everyday.) One entry point to consider are the
vent pipes on the roof. Rats are terrific climbers and jumpers. Placing a vent cap or mesh wire over the vent pipe is not unreasonable especially if you have a lot of over-hanging trees on your property. Rats can easily navigate the trees and jump to your rooftop.
First floor toilets are probably more susceptible to rat invasions than upper level toilets especially if the toilet soil pipe runs horizontally or at a very shallow angle to the sewer. Rats are good underwater swimmers. (They can swim one-half mile in open water and can tread water for up to three days.) It's totally possible for a rat to walk up a horizontal soil pipe from the sewer, swim through the water-filled piping inside the toilet, and surface in the toilet bowl. However, if the soil pipe runs vertically for five or more feet the rat will have difficulty climbing the inside of the slick, wet pipe.
Most toilets have traps that hold enough water in the connecting pipe to discourage the rats from coming in. However, in unused guest bathrooms and abandoned houses trap water can evaporate.
Flushing
toilets should be on your maintenance “to-do” list.
If a rat actually does happen to get into your toilet, the first thing you should do is shut the lid. They can jump out. With the lid closed, squirt liquid dishwashing soap into the bowl between the opening of the seat and the rim of the toilet. The dishwashing soap makes the bowl and the pipe below it slippery, making it hard for the rat to get any traction. Then flush the toilet. Usually the rat goes down and doesn't come back. Then, call the City and demand that they bait the sewers. Probably wouldn't hurt to call a pest control professional, too.
Comments
Colin
20 May 2009, 10:12
I used a whole bottle of dish soap and flushed and it worked.
Helen Pitt
05 Jun 2009, 08:31
You can buy a fixture for your toilet that will prevent this from
happening.
www.snakeratverminbarrier.com
It is just being launched in the USA after being proven in the UK market.
Ask the Exterminator
05 Jun 2009, 09:03
Backflow preventers have been available for sewer lines forever.
mark jones
15 Jun 2009, 12:17
there are many valves for sewer lines but this is the first that is fitted
above ground, if there was a problem with other types of valves how would
you know ? also you would have to do some extensive work to replace them
with this new product all you need to do is remove a toilet pan and fit it
its so simple and easy to do,and with all that in mind you have a cross
flow valve that will allow 2 toilets to work of 1 tee piece which means
less void space and to add to that. the product also means you will never
get any nasty surprises when sat on the toilet such as snakes or rats or
other creepy things making there way out of the sewer. this product is
totally amazing and anyone who is scared of things coming up the toilet
should fit one as it really does work and gives great piece of mind .
jerry
08 Jul 2009, 01:32
The rat that was in my toilet earlier tonight was unable to climb out since
the toilet was too slippery for his feet. When I went to whack him with a
2X4, he deftly swam out the trap and onto who knows where. This was a 2nd
floor toilet. I'm pretty sure that he got in through the roof vent, which
lacks a screen.
Chris
04 Sep 2009, 07:07
Thanks everybody. Apparently I've been coddled in suburbia all my life
because I never had to deal with rats until now. One of them apparently
climbed out of the toilet, left a paw print about the size of a small
puma's in the glue trap I had put down, then pooped and left the way it
came. Nice to know the world shares my troubles.
Renee
15 Oct 2009, 22:33
I thought this was impossible. Well, yesterday a big rat came out of my
toilet in my powder room and pooped all over the floor. He then hid behind
the sink and we finally glue trapped him 24 hours later. Thank God my dog
noticed the rat! This is the stuff nightmares are made of. I am glad I am
not alone. I feel victimized! Have any of you had "repeat offenders?"
Karin
03 Nov 2009, 00:14
OMG !!!!!
just wanted to say that the liquid soap & a dozen flushes seems to have
worked. Thank God this advise was available to me . I will be checking
screenes as well. Thanks :-)
mark jones
04 Nov 2009, 10:06
karin liquid soap is a tempary fix and the problem might come back . my
advise is ti look at www.snakeratverminbarrier.com and see there fact
sheets . and fit a valve to your toilet and you will never get this problem
again.
NJ in Ft. Lauderdale
18 Nov 2009, 01:24
OK. I think I have you all beat. I now have my third November rat (that's 1
for the last 3 years) in my guest toilet. The first one flew out at me and
aftr living with it for 5 days I electricuted it with a contraption after
it got onto my kithcen counter cornered by my indoor-only kitty. Since then
I bang on the toilet seat before lifting it. Rat#2 splashed and after 2
packets of rat poison, it started stinking to high heaven about 5 days
later. Thank God for my friend who has no problem disposing of it. Rat #3
was a total surprise last week. No splash, but cowering when I raised the
lid. He still in there with a packet of rat poison and no odor yet. Must
not be too hungry. I got up on my roof and 2 of the 4 vent stacks are not
covered but will be by the end of the week. I'm SO OVER THIS. If my 82
year old mother had been the one to raise the lid she would have had a
heart attack and never would set foot in my house again. EVER!!!!!! I do
purposly use that toilet throughout the week a few time just to keep the P
trap from drying out but I guess it doesn't work.
The fixtures, does waste ever back up from those?
