Can rats come up through your toilet?

DEAR SIR,

I LIVE IN AN APARTMENT IN EDEN PRAIRIE, MN. JUST THE OTHER NIGHT AT 2:30AM I HAD TO GO POTTY, I ALWAYS HAVE THE COVER DOWN AS I DONT WANT MY CATS TO WALK ON THE SEAT SO AS I LIFTED THE COVER…. I HAD TO DO A DOUBLE TAKE AS I SAW A BROWN RAT SITING ON THE SIDE OF THE BOWL WHERE THE WATER DID NOT REACH, BUT HE WAS ALL WET.
I QUICKLY SHUT THE COVER AND FLUSHED THE TOILET 10-12 TIMES BEFORE OPENING THE COVER AGAIN….. HE WAS GONE, BUT MY FEAR LIVES ON. I NOW HAVE A 20LB CAT LITTER SITTING ON THE COVER OF MY TOILET AND FLUSH IT TWICE BEFORE I TAKE A LOOK. THIS JUST HAPPENED 4 NIGHTS AGO AND HAVE NOT SEEN ANOTHER YET, BUT NO MATTER WHERE I LIVE I WILL ALWAYS BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN USING “ANY” TOILET.
JUST A STORY TO CONVINCE YOU THAT IT DOES HAPPEN……..
THANKS FOR LISTENING.
DIANE PRENTICE
MINNESOTA

I am Googling this because I just came home from running errand. Used my ground level bathroom (#1) and even though I know some people don’t, I always look before using it and after. So, I flushed then washed my hands and fixed my hair when I heard something. I looked down at the toilet and there it was – a pretty large, wet rat splashing around. I screamed, slammed the lid down, have called the husband and will let either he or the cat take care of the problem later.

Seriously, this thing is big and I know I would have seen it before I sat down – bleh – or at least heard it. BTW, I live in Austin, Texas and this is definitely a first for me!

I don’t think this is as rare as you say. I woke up yesterday morning to find a drowned rat in my toilet bowl. My exterminator came and looked for signs that he came from inside the house and he found nothing. He fished the thing out and put bait (poisoned) under the house as a precaution. He had no idea where the thing came from. This morning at 5 am I heard a splashing in my toilet bowl. Went to check it out, and there was ANOTHER rat in the toilet — this one was alive and swimming. I shut the lid and let him wear himself out until he drowned. My exterminator is coming back today, but we think now that they are coming up from the city sewer. I called the city and was told to pour bleach down the kitchen sink and toilet bowls. It is disgusting — and if it is a city problem, it becomes your problem too. The city has to be willing to bait the sewers. If they don’t, I’m not sure you can do anything about them swimming up through the pipes, except to eliminate any food smell with bleach. My tip: Never go to sleep with the toilet lids up.

I woke up one morning to find a rat staring me in the face. I screamed like a little girl and about jumped through my basement ceiling. I flushed 20x and he was to big or didn’t want to go back down the other way so I left him in there for a little over 2 hours and the damn thing nearly ate through a solid wood heavy toilet seat. Not fun and not rare.

Yes; the absoute can and do regularly in a building I manage in NYC. they have appeared a far as the 7th floor up in toilets, so anyone who tells you it cannot be so, be well advised that is so and is happening quite regularly. I just would like to know how to make it STOP!! there are currently no solutions that I can find.

I had a my toilet and the lid was down. As far as being able to get to get out he sure did he made a big leap right out. So yes they can get out of john. I trapped it in the shower and sprayed it with wasp spray and he died in about five or six minutes. How he got their I am not sure I thought through the sewer pipe or someone said perhaps through the vent pipe on the roof. I have not looked there yet to see in it has a screen over it  or not. If not I will put one.

I just awoke at 5:00AM to a sound in our toilet. I thought it was water leaking. I lifted the bowl in our second story master bedroom bath to find a rat in our toilet. I flushed it and it was gone. Uggggg. Can’t get back to bed.

Yes it can happen twice. Just found the second one in about 5 yrs and found your site looking for answers. I guess it’s just going to be a closed top with a weight on top.

I live in a flat on the 5th and top floor of an old Victoria building in London, UK.  Last week, very early one morning, as my husband was washing his hands in the WC a BIG black rat ran over his toes.  The scream that erupted from him was enough for myself and my two teenage children to wake up and come running, fearing my husband was being attacked.  We missed seeing the rat (thank God) as it ran into our kitchen.  The kids and I cowered outside the kitchen door while my terrified husband was sent in to deal with it and it wasn’t pleasant (he was in shock for days)!  Rats CAN and DO climb and rats CAN and Do get themselves out of the toilet bowl so be warned!  Now I feel scared in my own home and I’m constantly telling the kids off for leaving the toilet lid open.  I’m putting bleach down the toilet before I go to work and before I go to bed and I’m petrified each time I walk into my toilet and turn the light on.  Don’t even get me started on how nervous I am sitting on the toilet.

I came upon this post as I was googling wondering if Rats & Mice could swim or not out of curiosity. Well because of two things!!

One when I was young about 12ish. My mom was washing clothes down in the basement and she said kept seeing a lot of movement and every time she would look and stare nothing seemed wrong. So after about a handful of double takes she looks over and there say this HUGE Mickey Mouse rat sitting on the toilet, wet and eating whatever take out he picked up. Even though we don’t use that toilet nor does it have water my mom came up screaming. My dad came to the conclusion that the Rat came from the sewer and only came up that toilet cause it’s not used nor have water in it to “prevent” him. 

So my dad closed the toilet seat cover and put a brick on it and put up traps because also we had an abundance of field mice due to the fact neighbors were killing off the stray cats. 

So about June or July I notice rat droppings but I wasn’t sure at first because our basement and garage leaks and a lot of potato bugs are in there. So one night I saw this HUGE BROWN RAT doing this circus act on the ladder that’s hanging up in the garage. Shortly after I told my mom and she assumed it was a mouse or mice. Mostly because all the can goods and dried food were eaten as well as empty wrappers. Like for noodles, cereal, chips even some vegetables were eaten. And it wasn’t old food it had been recently got. So I thought they came through the mail slot even though we have a relatively new garage door and a heavier weighted mail slot it’s possible for the mailman leave a little mail hanging out for them to latch on to and come in the garage. 

So we brought poison and we plan to put it down but I don’t know what to do really and since my mom’s still in brain surgery recovery she’s not sure either. 

But last week when I went to get the mail I saw this Lil mouse but I assumed it was a baby rat. My mom said it was field mouse but I still disagreed. About 2 evenings ago I went to go get the mail and also run an errand when I went to bend down to get the mail (because it lands on the garage floor) this HUGE BLACK Mickey Mouse RAT jumps at me and takes off into the garage and hides. I didn’t see where he went because I was getting over the mini-heart attacke he gave me. 

But I did notice this!! Every time the mail falls and covers the drain by the garage door (it’s 1 of 2 maybe 3) it has rip marks that match up the drains circle and the drain cant be no more than 4inches wide but the cover is no more than 1 inch, 2 at the most!! And it seems any mail that falls over there gets ripped up or EATEN!! But they won’t eat the right mail though. However they’ve made holes in a box that was put away for storage has holes in the corners and even bags that were filled with cleaners and whatnot have been shredded to bits!! 

Like how do we get rid of them?? Will they eat the poison food?? Should we put food on the sticky traps??? What about the drain, will bleach work?? 

The borough we live in (Wilkinsburg, PA) is lazy and won’t care about the issue until it becomes a serious, uncontainable problem or disaster! There are a buncha vacant houses and any if not all animals live in them. There was even a vacant business building in the downtown area and it was torn down because of rat infestation. The borough won’t clean the extremely clogged sewers so I guess the rats look for some other refuge and come in to the homes by the drain pipes. 

But I’m concerned he’ll come up to the second floor toilet. And because the toilet is OLD (probably came with the 60+ year old house) the toilet seat & covers won’t fit properly and there’s enough gap for him to lift it up and roam around!!

What do we do??

I thought the same thing with the mail slot it’s maybe 2 no more than 3 feet off the ground. The only possible way is because of the designs in the door that would provide a sort of “step up” if you will. But I’ll admit it that I’m not a fan of touching grossing stuff and doing the trick trap even the sticky paper creeps me out!! I did see something last night called the Rat Zapper an its humane and it’s only big enough for rats and mice (and I guess squirrels would be the biggest possible animal but we don’t have problems with them). Would that be a good option?? All you got to do us bait it and it gives an electric shock to the rodent and then you pick up the container and dump it in the trash or garbage can. I thought that would help if the sticky papers and poison doesn’t work since they’re all over the garage. Would that be a good back up plan??