There’s a live rat in my toilet! I just went in the bathroom and heard a splashing noise, looked in the toilet and a rat was looking back at me. :eek: I have no idea where he came from or how he ended up in the toilet. He’s not too big but larger than a mouse that’s why I say it’s a rat. I closed the lid so he’s still in there. So what do I do now? I thought about flushing but it might get stuck in the pipes somewhere and that would be a big problem. HELP!
Yeah, don’t flush him. He might get stuck, plus that’s mean.
I’m not sure what I’d do, but it would probably involve putting peanut butter in some kind of large container that has a lid, and putting the container near the toilet bowl and hope that he goes in there so I could shut the lid on him and release him outside. Maybe a large vase with peanut butter in the end with a bowl you can place over the opening would work.
If that won’t work, do you happen to have a cat you can shove down in the toilet?
Now that would be mean.
Well, I googled the question and was directed to an exterminator’s page. They recommended squirting liquid dish soap under the lid and give it a flush. I did that and it worked. Had to flush about 10 times though. Sonofabitch didn’t want to let go of the bowl.
Seems critters can get in through the vent stack all the way up on the roof. I’m gonna have to get up there tomorrow and screen it off.
My wife won’t be peeing in the dark anymore.
… well, ya learn somethin’ new every day don’t ya? 
I think I’d have gone the cinder block on the toilet lid + call animal control route. Then again, I’m typing from a keyboard from miles and miles away, without a live rat splashing around my toilet.
I’ve heard of this, but never experienced it myself. Apparently, the rats can squeeze through a pipe the diameter of a quarter. I do not go to the bathroom at night without light exactly for this reason. I don’t want something tapping at my ass, indicating they’d like to get out of the bowl. Or, god forbid, a leap/grab/bite on my dangling balls.
I’d have probably poisoned it somehow. I don’t think I’d want to flush it. Or use the brick method and call animal control.
yikes, what an awful surprise! :eek:
A quarter? From the toilet it’s a minimum 3 inch hole that continues to get bigger in the sewer system.
Ever hear the term “sewer rat”. They be real. If you want to worry about something worry about snakes biting your dangly bits.. But since you’re a guy you don’t have to take that sitting down.
A quarter diameter was the size I saw on one of those TV shows that discuss these sorts of things. I know a standard toilet has a larger hole and is therefore much easier for the rat to access.
I couldn’t believe the squishy bastard could squeeze into a tube so tight, but there it is. Knowing this has changed my toilet behavior at night ever since. And this thread hasn’t helped much to change anything.
It might have come through the sewer. That’s one good reason to keep the toilet lid down that women leave up all the time. You can have a really clean sealed up house, but the toilet is always an entry point.
A local plumber got called for a plugged toilet. The toilet snake wouldn’t go past the curve in the toilet. He removed the toilet to find a large constrictor snake in the sewer pipe.
Find a nice straight stick about a foot long, insert as appropriate and - hey! Toilet brush! 
I’d have gone with “scream like a little girl at a volume they can hear from Australia”, myself.
That’d be like a rodent’s version of Wipeout.
You’re assuming that a rat would look at your ass and think, “I’d tap that.”
they come through the sewer or down the vent pipe from the roof. it gets in the bowl and can’t climb out. don’t try guns (even BB, people shatter their toilet) or a baseball bat (maybe shatter and maybe climb up the bat and escape into house).
close the lid and keep flushing. at some time it will head back down the drain. maybe some irritating chemical like bleach will help it not like to stay in the bowl.
Bravo, my friend. Encore?
This is why I’ve given up toilets. Much too dangerous.
This is one of the Dope’s collective mind’s shining moments. Steve Irwin would have been proud. What—you guys can’t grab the freaking kitchen tongs, pluck the little bastard out of the pool, toss him in a bucket, and let him loose in the backyard? Your cats are looking at you right now and shaking their heads in disbelief.
Glad you got rid of the rat. For future reference, though, if you ever get one in your kitchen, the answer is “fix that rat.” (YouTube link).
Yes, this. But use the bbq tongs, and make sure you put gloves on first.
Did the rat come up the drain? Or did it fall in looking for a drink.
Yeah, I can’t believe you flushed him. That’s mean, could clog your toilet (and the plumber would yell at you), is bad for the sewer system, and did I mention it’s really mean?