Posted on 06/12/2013 12:23:51 AM PDT by nickcarraway
It is the only animal in the world that Sir David Attenborough does not like, and one that has left a couple in south London terrified of using their own bathroom.
A rat has apparently taken residence in the toilet of the home where Margaret, 59, and Keith Woods, 67, have lived for the last 27 years.
A horrifying video filmed by the couple, from Sutton, shows the rat – which they have nicknamed Roland – poking its head into the toilet bowl from the U-bend.
‘I went to the loo and I could hear scratching. I jumped up and thought – this time I’m going to watch. I flushed the toilet straight away and went back, leaving the light on,’ Mrs Woods told the Sutton Guardian.
‘It was rearing its ugly head.’
The couple has now resorted to repeatedly flushing the toilet and running the taps for several minutes before using the bathroom.
Responding to reports Thames Water had been slow to respond to an initial complaint, a company spokesperson said: ‘A CCTV investigation of the sewer was done last week and the network is working as it should. We have also carried out a thorough clean of the sewer pipes around the property and will putting down some poison to help the customer get rid of the problem.’
David Cross, head of technical training at Rentokil, commented: ‘Thankfully, this is still a very rare occurrence, but we have seen more of these cases in recent years. Rats are an ingenious species, and they will do anything within their power to access new sources of food. After navigating a U-bend for the first time, the rodents become more confident and will often make repeat visits to the same property. Use of one-way valves in the manhole chamber can provide (amongst other things) an additional barrier for rats by denying them access to the soil pipe.’
I had an experience regarding a rat and a toilet which was reminiscent of the scene from the movie Alien where the monster pops out of the guy's chest.
Suffice it to say, don't let your toilet pipes become dry for any lengthy period of time.
If that does occur, refill the system with water, and flush the toilet several times WITH THE LID CLOSED.
Once you finally are ready to lift the lid, it might also be a good idea to be holding a baseball bat, Japanese bayonet, or some such implement, should the necessity arise of battling the rather large sewer rat which bursts forth from the bowels of the toilet, in a manner very reminiscent of the aforementioned scene from the movie Alien...
Additionally, after relating this experience to a friend, he told me of a friend of his who experienced a similar problem while sitting on the toilet, and who forever afterwards paranoically carried with him some kind of grating which was intended to preclude such a situation ever arising again!
Just some friendly advice...
Would you say the rat was Biden his time?
add antifreeze to toilet tank
Bleach would also do the job - plus leave it sparkly clean!
OMG.
Why is the water level in the bowl so low?
No dirty rat.
I’ve seen that happen.
♫ ♩ "Roland, the headless sewer rodent..." ♬♪
And to think I have always had a fear of snakes coming up and biting my rump.
You, too?!!!
...still on the run from VanOwen...
The whiskers tickle my bumm
“You can still see his headless body wrigglin’ through the pipes,
In a pasty flash of Margaret’s ample bum...
In a pasty flash of Margaret’s ample bum.”
good heavens. i’m sure seeing a rat was rather disturbing....but holy heck. this is a really unflattering picture of the couple!
> And to think I have always had a fear of snakes coming up and biting my rump.
Odd that you mention snakes.
When I was 9, there actually was a snake in our toilet.
And being a 9 year old boy, I thought that I could catch it.
It turned out to be a water mocasin and it bit me on the hand.
That day I learned about snake bite antivenom and tetanus shots. I was the first snakebite case in Anne Arundel County, Maryland in 28 years.
Use a cherry bomb! Rats HATE them.
I’m sure that rats like to eat nuts. Yikes
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