# Giant toilet snakes strike again
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 13, 2006, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032 "2006-12-13T23:01:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2006, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/1 "2006-12-13T23:01:40Z")
[Australian wildlife worker pulls 7-foot python out of septic tank](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/12/13/international/i134806S05.DTL). The scariest part is that, when he arrived, he saw the snake sticking its head out of the toilet.
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### Author:  [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/2 "2006-12-13T23:04:26Z")
In America, you snake toilet! In Australia, toilet snakes _you_!
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/3 "2006-12-13T23:19:14Z")
Ah yeah…nothing like a heapin’ helping of good, old-fashioned nightmare fuel.
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### Author:  [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/4 "2006-12-13T23:19:30Z")
Poor thing. It was just trying to get out of the septic tank!
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### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2006, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/5 "2006-12-14T00:13:50Z")
The question is, though, do snakes come out of toilets counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern?
Actually, toilets in Australia flush pretty much straight down, as I learned when I went there last year. It’s probably good that I was so interested in seeing what the toilets there do, because that means I couldn’t get surprised by a giant toilet snake. Or a funnel-web spider, which are reputed to sometimes lurk on toilets, for that matter.
[QUOTE=Hal Briston]
Ah yeah…nothing like a heapin’ helping of good, old-fashioned nightmare fuel.
[/QUOTE]
[I dare you to read this.](http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=animals_oddities&id=3554628)
> [@Jake](#):
>
> Poor thing. It was just trying to get out of the septic tank!
Evidently it lived pretty well catching frogs in the septic tank, though- it was too big to come out through the toilet.
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2006, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/6 "2006-12-14T00:34:13Z")
[QUOTE=Anne Neville]
Or a funnel-web spider, which are reputed to sometimes lurk on toilets, for that matter.
[/QUOTE]
No, that’s red-back spiders. Funnel webs crawl into your shoes if you leave them outside and then bite you on the toe when you put the shoes on. A lesson learnt by all children in the northern suburbs of Sydney where I grew up - check shoes first if they’ve been left outside.
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### Author:  [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2006, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/7 "2006-12-14T03:05:11Z")
And the only things that lurk in toilets up north (I grew up in Darwin) are the green tree frogs, who hide under the rims, then jump on your bum when you sit down! Scary, but not life threatening. Come to think of it, carpet pythons aren’t exactly dangerous themselves. The resulting heart attack may be.
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### Author:  [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2006, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/8 "2006-12-14T13:39:20Z")
They are planning a movie based on this story, with Samuel L. Jackson
_Snakes In A Drain_
Si
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### Author:  [@Terrorcotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrorcotta)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/9 "2006-12-14T14:40:24Z")
[QUOTE=Hal Briston]
Ah yeah…nothing like a heapin’ helping of good, old-fashioned nightmare fuel.
[/QUOTE]
Nightmare fuel, hell! That’s neurosis fodder! Then again, if I saw a giant snake head sticking out of the toilet, I wouldn’t need the toilet anymore.
Maybe we should all sacrifice toads to the toilet to keep our new Giant Snake Overlords happy in the septic underworld.
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### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/10 "2006-12-14T18:06:59Z")
[QUOTE=Terrorcotta]
Maybe we should all sacrifice toads to the toilet to keep our new Giant Snake Overlords happy in the septic underworld.
[/QUOTE]
Australians have quite a few [cane toads](http://www.amonline.net.au/herpetology/faq/cane_toad.htm#how_many) that they could presumably use for this purpose. We North Americans would have to go to [southern Florida or southern Mexico](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bufo_marinus_distribution.png) to get sacrificial cane toads, so maybe we could use some other kind of toad instead.
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### Author:  [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/11 "2006-12-14T18:47:45Z")
[QUOTE=Terrorcotta]
Nightmare fuel, hell! That’s neurosis fodder! Then again, if I saw a giant snake head sticking out of the toilet, I wouldn’t need the toilet anymore.
Maybe we should all sacrifice toads to the toilet to keep our new Giant Snake Overlords happy in the septic underworld.
[/QUOTE]
All hail the Giant Snake Overlords!
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### Author:  [@Terrorcotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrorcotta)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/12 "2006-12-14T19:41:19Z")
I just don’t think Giant Snake Overlords are gonna care where we **get** the sacrificial toads as long as they are big and tasty.
AND served on time.
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### Author:  [@Terrorcotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrorcotta)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/13 "2006-12-14T19:46:34Z")
But you know, this could escalate badly if we have to start flushing bigger and bigger sacrifices. Suddenly we’ll have to clone bigger and bigger frogs or giant rats and bunnies.
Then you know who profits? The plumbing industry when we all need larger porcelain thrones, that’s who!
And who’s to say that small children aren’t on the Giant Snake Overlord Agenda.
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### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/14 "2006-12-14T19:52:24Z")
Crikey! We need Steve Irwin now more than ever.
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### Author:  [@Terrorcotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrorcotta)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2006, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/15 "2006-12-14T20:05:31Z")
[QUOTE=Anne Neville]
Australians have quite a few [cane toads](http://www.amonline.net.au/herpetology/faq/cane_toad.htm#how_many) that they could presumably use for this purpose. We North Americans would have to go to [southern Florida or southern Mexico](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bufo_marinus_distribution.png) to get sacrificial cane toads, so maybe we could use some other kind of toad instead.
[/QUOTE]
The technical name ‘Bufo’ for some frogs always cracks me up. I imagine the frogs watching a newcomer hop in and saying, “Yo! Bufo! Yo mofo?”
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### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2006, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/16 "2006-12-14T23:02:17Z")
[QUOTE=Terrorcotta]
I just don’t think Giant Snake Overlords are gonna care where we **get** the sacrificial toads as long as they are big and tasty.
AND served on time.
[/QUOTE]
But they might not be fresh if they were brought in from too far away. And I don’t think I want to know what a toilet snake might do if you gave it a sacrificial toad that was not to its liking.
> [@](#):
>
> The technical name ‘Bufo’ for some frogs always cracks me up.
_Bufo marinus_ sounds like they ought to live in [Marin County](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_County,_California), but they don’t. If they did, people there would probably [lick them to see if they could get high](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoactive_toad). (Jealous? _Moi?_ Just because there’s no way I’ll ever be able to afford a house there…)
Say… just realized that flushing potentially hallucinogenic toads to giant toilet snakes might not be such a good idea… Unless the giant toilet snake were in a toilet that belonged to someone you didn’t like, of course.
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### Author:  [@Terrorcotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrorcotta)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2006, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/17 "2006-12-15T00:34:44Z")
That’s it! I’m digging me a ce-ment outhouse…
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### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/18 "2006-12-15T00:46:20Z")
[QUOTE=Terrorcotta]
That’s it! I’m digging me a ce-ment outhouse…
[/QUOTE]
[Pedantry] A [concrete](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7441793&postcount=2) one might work better [/Pedantry], or you could always go with a brick shithouse…
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### Author:  [@Terrorcotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrorcotta)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2006, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/19 "2006-12-15T02:01:46Z")
You know, of course, that this has dredged up a long suppressed memory of a snake coming out of the drain in the tub from when I was 4 and I’ve been spooked all day!
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2006, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-toilet-snakes-strike-again/384032/20 "2006-12-15T05:58:35Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator]
No, that’s red-back spiders. Funnel webs crawl into your shoes if you leave them outside and then bite you on the toe when you put the shoes on. A lesson learnt by all children in the northern suburbs of Sydney where I grew up - check shoes first if they’ve been left outside.
[/QUOTE]
The North Shore is nightmare territory for funnel webs. I saw more when i lived for one year in Willoughby than i saw in 15 years growing up at the foot of the Blue Mountains.
Once, my mate got a frantic call at work from his wife. Their two year old daughter was standing at their back door, and watched a funnel web walk into the house between her feet. He had to rush home, flush it out from behind the stove, and dispatch it.