5 critters that can crawl through your toilet & how to fight them
If you live in an area with a large lizard population, it’s worth bearing in mind that they can easily find a way into your toilet. Many lizards love water and are small enough to squeeze in through your plumbing system. What typically attracts lizards into your toilet is other, smaller bugs, so again, keeping your toilet as clean as possible can seriously help reduce the risk.
3. Rats
Some plumbing systems are connected to a house’s garbage disposal, which can lead rats into your toilet bowl in the search for food scraps. If this is a concern of yours, you should stop throwing waste food into your garbage disposal and ensure it goes away with the trash, instead. This should prevent rats from wanting to explore your pipes, but if you’re still concerned, you can install a specialized rat guard.
4. Possums
Like rats, small possums are excellent swimmers, can hold their breath for long period, and are bendy enough to get around smaller pipes. Also like rats, keeping your pipes free of food scraps is key to dissuading possums from entering your plumbing system. To properly clean our your toilet’s pipes, mix equal parts of sugar, water, vinegar, and 5-10 drops of dish soap and flush it down your toilet. Boiling water can also be a good way to deep clean.
5. Snakes
Snakes are basically the perfect shape for fitting through long, thin pipes, and are fans of cool, dark, wet environments. While the majority of snakes that do appear in toilet bowls are relatively harmless, it’s likely not worth taking the risk of trying to remove them yourself. If you are unlucky enough to spy a snake in your toilet bowl, the safest move is to call pest control to have them deal with the problem. Once your toilet visitor is gone, you should again deep clean your pipes using the sugar, water, vinegar, and dish soap concoction to clear out any food residue in your pipes and ensure no more unwanted guests.
