Somerville Resident Finds Rat In Toilet, Believes It Came From Sewer

BOSTON, MA — A Reddit user from Somerville recently found a dead "rat or very large mouse" underneath their closed toilet lid, according to a post on the city's forum.

"This was a first-floor bathroom, so I'm guessing it climbed up the sewer drain and main plumbing stack and spelunked its way past the u-bend," the user wrote in the post.

Another user chimed in adding that it is not the first time they saw a post on the Somerville subreddit "describing this phenomenon," to which another user noted that they were the one who posted about a similar experience a few months ago.

"My partner and I woke up to a live rat in our toilet," read the earlier post. In an update on the second user's account, the first user said they "called animal control and they did nothing" so they "sadly had to pour bleach into the toilet."

"That forced the rat back down the pipes," the user said. "No sign of it since."

One commenter on the most recent thread, who described themself as a mechanical and plumbing engineer with "some knowledge of how city storm and sewer works," said it is "entirely possible" that the rodent climbed up from the drain and drowned in the toilet.

Experts online seem to agree. According to a web page for Seattle, Washington's "sewer baiting program," the same can happen with kitchen sinks and in reverse as "rats can follow the scent of food washed down your drains and into the sewers."

"Old side sewers and plumbing may also make your home more at risk," officials wrote. "Flooding or heavy rains may drive them into the side sewer lines that run from your house to the street. Kitchen pipes are too small for rats, so instead, they'll try to come up through your toilet."

Rats can fit through holes the size of a quarter and swim as many as three days straight, according to a 2015 National Geographic article which includes a video demonstrating how easily a rat can crawl up into a toilet bowl.

Experts in Seattle added that if you happen to spot a rat in your toilet, you should do the following:

• Stay calm.
• Keep the lid down so it can't jump out.
• Squirt some liquid dish soap in the toilet to help break the surface tension of the water. The soap de-greases the oils on the rat's fur so it can't stay afloat in the water.
• Flush the toilet! The rat will usually go back down the drain the same way it came up. You may need to flush multiple times.
• Sometimes the rat may escape or will not flush,
  • Keep the lid closed and call a pest control company to remove it if you can't.
  • Close the bathroom door and set a rat trap if it escapes.