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PLEASE help me explain this- freaky and gross

post #1 of 56
10/27/10 at 11:29am
Thread Starter 
I'm freaking out here. If I have some kind of a reasonable explanation I'll be able to sleep at night.

This am I woke up and my 5 yo said he had to pee really bad but there was something big and moving all around in the toilet. I thought he meant a moth or centipede fell in, bugs commonly seen in our house! So I went to check and there was a either a huge MOUSE or small RAT swimming in our toilet!!!!!! :Puke Seriously, I'm so ill right now. My dh had to fish it out and I'm on the edge of vomiting thinking of HOW on earth it got in there.

I don't see any signs of rodent infestation in our house- we had mice 6 yrs ago and ever since I'm super alert for mouse droppings, and I haven't seen anything. The only thing that seems remotely possible is that it's raining heavily- did it somehow swim up the sewer pipes and end up in our toilet? Can rats hold thier breath that long?? It wasn't half-dead as if it had been swimming long, it was paddling pretty energetically as if it had just happened. Could a rat or mouse climb UP the toilet and fall in?? Somehow get on TOP of the toilet and drop in? Climb up the bathtub and JUMP a foot over? I just don't see how it's possible or where it would have come from- there are no other surfaces nearby it could have climbed up- everything around the toilet is porcelain and slippery. No holes to climb through in the bathroom.

I have to find some way to explain this or I'm going to be freaking out all night thinking of mysterious rats dropping down from nowhere onto my or the kids' beds!
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post #2 of 56
10/27/10 at 11:39am
Actually, the whole bucket of water trick is a common one used to catch rodents. Get a deep bucket, fill it a 1/3 of the way with water, and set it in the middle of a room, RV or basement. When its quiet, and the rodent is thirsty, they jump into the bucket for a drink, but then drown because they cant get back out again.

The rodent in your case was probably able to just keep itself above water with half the amount of effort because a toilet bowl is pretty shallow. But I am sorry to say, it probably jumped up for a drink and fell in, it did NOT swim up from the sewer. You would be surprised how high they can jump.

Dont worry about them crawling into bed with you. They wont come near you. They will scatter at the sound of your movement. I would advise getting some traps and setting them up around the house. Its super easy for just one to set up shop in your basement or crawlspace for the winter, esepcially if you live in an area that has some recent disturbance of soil due to building.

They have humane traps at Home depot and Lowes.
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post #3 of 56
10/27/10 at 11:41am
I saw a study where they fed rats different diets and then had them tread water. The rats on the normal diet could do it for about 15 minutes. The rats fed b-vitamins did about 2 hours. The rats fed raw grass-fed liver were still going strong hours later when the researchers finally got tired of waiting and took them out.
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post #4 of 56
10/27/10 at 11:44am
glad I had my grass-fed, raw lamb's liver in my smoothie this morning.


Another vote for "didn't likely swim up from the sewer." THey can make themselves VERY flat. They don't need a hole, they just need a crack that will accommodate their skull.
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post #5 of 56
10/27/10 at 12:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barbie64g View Post
You would be surprised how high they can jump.
YES!!!!! I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen if myself!!!!!
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post #6 of 56
10/27/10 at 12:52pm
http://www.cracked.com/article_18806...ue-part-4.html

Check out #5. To anybody who reads this... I'm sorry in advance.
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post #7 of 56
10/27/10 at 1:14pm
This whole thread is grossing me out.LOL When I was little and we lived in Hawaii, my mom said she went to pee at midnight and saw a rat in the toilet. Us as kids never knew, she didnt tell us, cos we would freak. She JUST told me this like last month.
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post #8 of 56
10/27/10 at 1:37pm
How gross for you OP.

(yet I'm very impressed with healthy rat's abilities to tread water - at least it wasn't one of those in the toilet. . . )
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post #9 of 56
10/27/10 at 1:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barbie64g View Post
But I am sorry to say, it probably jumped up for a drink and fell in, it did NOT swim up from the sewer.
I heard a story on NPR about a rat that did swim up from the sewer into someone's toilet.

Freaky stuff!
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post #10 of 56
10/27/10 at 1:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mama Mko View Post
I heard a story on NPR about a rat that did swim up from the sewer into someone's toilet.

Freaky stuff!
As disgusting and cringe worthy as that is, Im sure its the exception, not the rule.
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post #11 of 56
10/27/10 at 1:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barbie64g View Post
Dont worry about them crawling into bed with you. They wont come near you. They will scatter at the sound of your movement.
Not true! I had a friend who woke up in the middle of the night one night with one on her pillow about a foot from her face!
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post #12 of 56
10/27/10 at 3:09pm

 


Edited by Mulvah - 10/16/11 at 5:04pm
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post #13 of 56
10/27/10 at 3:18pm
do you have any pets? I had a friend growing up who's cat would regularly bring them mice and put them in the toilet.
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post #14 of 56
10/27/10 at 3:30pm


It is bad eough I have to dodge legos and possible cat puke during the night. Now I have to think about something biting me on the behind.

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post #15 of 56
10/27/10 at 3:43pm
We found a rat in the toilet once. I always assumed it swam up. It was when I was in college and living at home, and my mom and I freaked out and stacked dictionaries on top of the toilet lid, and when we looked about half an hour later it was gone. There were no wet little rat footprints on the toilet seat or in the bathroom, so the only thing that could have happened (other than my mom and I completely hallucinating the whole thing ) was that it swam away.

Don't people who live in places like Louisiana sometimes get baby alligators and the like in their toilets? I thought it wasn't that uncommon for critters to swim up from the sewer.
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post #16 of 56
10/27/10 at 3:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by limabean View Post
We found a rat in the toilet once. I always assumed it swam up. It was when I was in college and living at home, and my mom and I freaked out and stacked dictionaries on top of the toilet lid, and when we looked about half an hour later it was gone. There were no wet little rat footprints on the toilet seat or in the bathroom, so the only thing that could have happened (other than my mom and I completely hallucinating the whole thing ) was that it swam away.

Don't people who live in places like Louisiana sometimes get baby alligators and the like in their toilets? I thought it wasn't that uncommon for critters to swim up from the sewer.
But there is still a crack in most toilets between the lid and the actual bowl. If the crack is large enough, and the rat's skull is small enough, it can fit through. Rats and mice can flatten their bodies to the width of their skull.
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post #17 of 56
10/27/10 at 3:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ASusan View Post
But there is still a crack in most toilets between the lid and the actual bowl. If the crack is large enough, and the rat's skull is small enough, it can fit through. Rats and mice can flatten their bodies to the width of their skull.
Yes, but as I said there would have been water somewhere in the bathroom wherever the rat landed and scurried away. There wasn't, we checked.
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post #18 of 56
10/27/10 at 6:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AtYourCervices View Post
http://www.cracked.com/article_18806...ue-part-4.html

Check out #5. To anybody who reads this... I'm sorry in advance.
I was gonna post this. In the NPR story they mention, the people they talked to said that there's not water in the entire plumbing system, so the rat/mouse/critter only actually has to hold their breath for a second or so. Pretty creepy!
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post #19 of 56
10/27/10 at 7:14pm
Thread Starter 
UGH that's not what I was hoping to hear! Somehow I'm more comforted (if that's possible) to think it swam up due to the rain. I can't even read that article or whatever it is.

uggggggggggg and about 20 feet from our house has been a huge construction site for 1 1/2 yrs but they finished a month or so ago. Weird that if that were related, we haven't seen any creatures until now, when the construction is over.

So could we have rats with no other evidence? No droppings anywhere? And if ONE was caught, does that mean many generations have set up house in our walls?

We only have a dog and no cats.

I'm totally sickened and grossed out and scared. I just want there to be some other explanation than that we have a rodent infestation!
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post #20 of 56
10/27/10 at 7:15pm
Thread Starter 
and if we just caught the one, does that mean we need to start full-on pest control measures?
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