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Is Your Bathroom As Safe As You Think?
We’ve all thought it, but can it be true? Is it possible for live animals to come out of your toilet? While the idea of man-eating crocodiles or venomous snakes attacking you when you are at your most vulnerable may be a scary thought, it may not be that far from the truth.
Urban myth or not — the Horizon Comfort Zone Blog takes a precautionary look at 4 creatures that could be capable of finding their way through your plumbing and emerging through your toilet bowl.
Frogs
Aside from a few poisonous species and stories of great plagues, frogs are generally a very relaxed amphibian that is not recognized for their human interaction. However, a large majority of frogs are found to live in damp places. Enter your plumbing.
It just so happens that sewers, drains and plumbing pipes are all considered very damp places. In places such as Australia, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and other tropical regions frogs have actually been reported to have come through residents’ toilets into their homes.
Black Widow Spiders
In some parts of the world black widow spiders have been found to spin their web below the toilet seats of unsuspecting homeowners. Although the black widow spider wouldn’t technically traverse through your plumbing to reach your toilet, it will still make our list since their bites can be quite painful.
Rats
In 2008 alone, there were almost 60 rat-in-toilet incidents reported in the state of Washington that were verified by the region’s Health Department. The Health Department suggested that the rats were getting into residents’ toilets by following the scent of food washed down various drains that connected to the city’s sewer system. Once on the hunt for the food, the rats would get lost in the system of plumbing pipes and often find their ways into toilets instead of the kitchen sinks were the scents originated.
Read More: Are Flushable Wipes Bad for Your Plumbing System?
Snakes
The popular urban myth describes tales of snakes creating their habitats in the plumbing of residential homes and eventually traveling through the pipes into the residents’ toilets where they are said to attack.
Despite the terrifying thought, the science behind the myth would suggest that the types of snakes capable of swimming through plumbing pipes would be small water snakes that are not venomous nor are any real threat to humans.
The real problem with this myth is that within all reported incidents of snakes-in-toilets, the overwhelming majority of the species found are not small or water-dwelling but are rather huge deadly reptiles.
There is a very small chance that you will find any of the creatures mentioned in this article swimming around your toilet bowl in the near future, but it should make you think twice about that goldfish you flushed down your toilet when you were 8 years old because you thought it was dead.