Huge Snake Slithers From Toilet, Scares ‘6 Years Off’ Man’s Life

BEE COUNTY, TX — Let’s just get this out of the way: The fear that a snake might pop out of the toilet and bite you on the tuchus is real. Even if it’s a harmless garden snake, this isn’t a scenario anyone wants playing out in their bathroom. When the snake is an Eastern indigo snake and it’s 4 or so feet long and as big around as a table leg, you’ll want to and you should call in a sheriff’s posse to wrangle it.

Luckily, Wade Vielock was cleaning the bathroom at his Bee County, Texas, ranch, not using it in a way that would have given the blue indigo a tactical advantage. And, fortunately, blue indigo snakes aren’t venomous, so even if this one had been able to get a bite out of Vielock’s behind, no one would have had to suck out the venom in an emergency.

But still, this very large snake slithered out of the toilet bowl and “took at least six years off my life,” Vielock told television station KSAT.

Vielock charged out of the bathroom. In the pandemonium, he knocked over his 6-year-old son, who was also shaken up after having seen the snake poking its head out of the toilet. He wasn’t sure what to do or who to call.

He called a buddy who’s a taxidermist, then landed on the Bee County Sheriff’s Office. It turns out there has, in fact, been an uptick in nuisance snake calls this year because of wacky weather conditions. If an unwanted snake is hanging out around or in your house, sheriff's deputies are ready to repeat what was done in this case — they'll come to your house, capture the snake and release it back into the brush where it belongs.

In general, protected blue indigos are good snakes to have around because they hunt and eat rattlesnakes, other venomous snakes and troublesome varmints.

Deputy Lindsay Scotten, who expertly captured the snake, is emerging as a folk hero on Facebook, where the Bee County Sheriff’s Office posted photos and gave her kudos. There’s some male bashing in some of the comments, but for the most part, they reflect admiration for the deputy and more or less an aversion to snakes.

An exception is Lisa McLain, who said she helped rescue about 50 blue indigos after a bad freeze.

“They were all over the road, trying to stay warm, in the sun, half frozen and dying,” McLain wrote. “We loaded them in the trunk and back seat, took them home, put them in the garage with a heater! Next day, they were good as new, opened the garage door and off they crawled.”

And, of course, one good snake story led to another.

“That’s a baby,” wrote Joseph Richard Hammond, who said he’s seen blue indigos in South Texas that are “as big as a drill pipe.” He said the snakes were introduced in Texas to hunt rattlesnakes, but don’t have a natural predator.

And Chuck Wilmoth said blue indigos make “great pets” that earn their keep.

"People don’t realize a snake in the house keeps mice away,” he wrote.

Photos courtesy of Bee County Sheriff’s Office