Rat in the toilet

That has been discussed today. Though our plumber assured me it could happen to any house on the sewer system.

 

Buy a cat. Problem solved (although feline might not be too keen on climbing inside toilet).

I'm going to be thinking about this thread every time I stock the lake with brown trout for the rest of my life.

 

Is there anything you can flush down the toilet that won't affect the water supply but can deter these critters?

 

I have a rat terrier. Apparently the breed is that specific because she showed NO interest in the mice I had in the house this summer. I caught three in glue traps. Take the trap, put it in a bag, toss it in the trash can out by the alley. Does kinda suck when one's still alive and squirming in the trap, stuck face down. But, oh well. Shouldn't have come in my house.

 

Well, considering you shit down there on a regular basis, probably not.

I found myself in the exact same scenario, except for three details:

1. It was a square, plastic tall kitchen garbage can. I purposely left it empty with no plastic bag in it one night, and bingo, little bastard fell in and couldn't get out.
2. I didn't think of the paper trick, just went bareback.
3. I can't remember what brand of aluminum bat I had, other than I know Easton can't take credit for that one.

 

When I was a kid in Phoenix, we had a problem with cockroaches. They'd come up from the sewer and crawl out through drains. One time, a roach was in the toilet paper tube and crawled out when I grabbed for a few sheets.

One night, though, my parents went into the kitchen and found a bunch of them on the floor. I'm surprised they didn't freak out. We had to plug out drains at night and had the city spray the sewers in the area.

 

You want to avoid rats, move to Alberta. We like to brag we are a rat free province. Don't know how accurate that is, but in 26 years of living in the province I have never seen one.

My only encounter with a rat was on my first ever assignment during my internship at the radio/tv station in Lloydminster, which is split by the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. The assignment was to go to the Lloyd dump -- which is on the Saskatchewan side of the border -- with another reporter and watch the Alberta pest control service shoot rats. And by shoot rats I mean there were about a dozen pest control people with 22s lined up at the edge of the dumping area while a back hoe would dig in and pull back a load of garbage and the firing squad would shoot at anything that moved. The ricochets off the back hoe bucket were fun.

My worst toilet and pest story originates with my shop teacher. Cool guy, easy to get off topic. I should mention here I am horribly arachnophobia. Anyways teacher gets off topic and is telling us about his days when he was in Australia picking fruit for some orchard or something. He goes on to tell us how he was warned to to check under the outhouse toilet lid for these red spiders that are hanging out looking for a cool and moist environment, to escape the high heat of the Australia summer. Apparently several people die every year after getting bit on the ass. Again, how true this is I have no idea, but it was another eight years or so before I could go No. 2 in an outhouse again.

 

Unavailable for comment:

 

Maybe I should've saved this for the "Toilet in the Rat" thread, but I once had to cut open a just-euthanized lab rat so we could extract live tapeworms from it for an invertebrate zoology class.

 

Enjoy your nightmares:

http://tv.gawker.com/5732655/loose-rat-in-new-york-city-subway-car-crawls-on-mans-face

And no, despite some of the comments, it was not a pet rat.

And I've plugged this product before, but if you have a mice problem, get this thing. About a hundred times better than glue traps. Gets them, shocks them, they don't crawl away, you don't have to see them, just dump 'em in a bag. I think of the Rat Zapper like NORAD, it's protecting us day and night, whether we're awake or sleeping.

http://www.ratzapper.com/

However, we do buy a new one every few years. I think eventually the mice can smell the dead remains of their long-lost brothers and it doesn't attract them quite as well. We've got a mouse now that we've seen a few times in the kitchen but the zapper hasn't caught him. Usually if we see droppings, the next day the zapper is flashing with a kill.

 

I should've never read this thread. Jeezbus.

The only experience with rodents in my house was when I still lived with my parents. A field mouse got in and my mom freaked. Took myself (6-foot, 220 at the time), my brother (6-foot-3, 225) and his friend (6-foot-1, 190) an hour of hunting with golf clubs and bats to finally kill the fucker.

One of the greatest moments I must say.