Rat in the Toilet - Removal

02.11.2005 - Do rats come into your house through the toilet? Yes, I've seen it happen. However, it's very rare. To do so, the rat has to go through the plumbing pipes and through a waterlogged area, and that's just plain unlikely. Rats don't go somewhere unsafe unless they know there's a way out on the other end. So the truth is that the cases I've seen in which rats enter a home via a toilet are via toilets with the water shut off! Also, the rats here in Florida are Roof Rats, and they tend to stick to the high trees and power lines and rooftops, and not down in the sewers. Up north, the Norway rat is the one that lives underground, and they're more likely to come up through the toilet. Regardless, a case of water toilet entry is not impossible, such as in the above photo, where rats were using a water-free toilet in an un-rented house. The owner turned the water on, but the rats already knew it was a way in, and they continued to use the toilet. I arrived and the owner tried to flush a rat that was coming through, but I grabbed it! Then I grabbed another! In my hand in the above photo, you see two wet rats that I grabbed from a toilet.

If you have fears of a rat coming and biting your butt as you sit on the john, this won't happen. Rats coming through toilets are extremely rare, and if one did come up at such a time, it would try to hide from the monstrous creature hovering above it. I don't want to think about that sight. Anyway, as long as you don't have an abandoned house with the water turned off, there's pretty much no chance of a rat ever using the toilet, especially when in the average home there's about 100 easier places for rats to use. Those are the ones you should worry about sealing up if you want to stop a rat problem.

Do it yourself: Visit my How To Get Rid of Rats page for tips and advice.
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