Discovering that you have rats setting up shop inside of your toilet and drain pipes can bring many problems to your home or business. Clogs, backups, and the ability for the rats to enter at will are just a few of the problems you could face. It is essential to correct the problem and to prevent rats in toilet bowls from getting into your drains in the first place.
To stop rats from getting into your toilet, make sure that you leave no food or attractants in the drains. Make sure all entry points to drains are sealed and consider placing a drain valve on drains to stop rats from entering the home and thereby getting in the toilet.
Rats can be a serious problem and cause damage to your home, drains, and possibly even spread diseases. This article will explore what you need to know about rats in a toilet as well as ways to prevent rodents from getting into your toilets.
How to Stop Rats Coming Up Your Toilet
To stop rats from coming up your toilet, you first have to understand the ways in which they reach the toilet. Rats are highly skilled at running and climbing both horizontally and vertically across pipes, drains, and along surfaces, which are just some of the ways that rats can use drains to their advantage.
In addition to these capabilities, rats can also swim up to half a mile across the water in one go and even dive through the water to enter exposed pipes and find their way into a toilet bowl.
This means that rats can easily climb up drains, which is aided by the presence of water where they can swim. Once a rat has decided it wants to enter your home, it can easily swim and climb up the u-bend of a toilet to gain entry to the toilet bowl.
This is also possible for rats who climb up drainage systems from the outside. To prevent this from happening, you can install rat guards on the lines that will prevent the rats from climbing around the guards and block the entrance from the rat being able to enter further into the drains while also allowing the wastewater to drain out effectively.
Remember, there is no way to stop the rats from attempting to come into your home, but you can install devices to keep them from entering your home.
Yes, you can feasibly just remember to keep your toilet lid closed, yet this doesn’t stop the shock of opening the lid and seeing a rat swimming in the toilet bowl. Stopping rats from coming up the drain and into your toilet is a ghastly thought, yet there are ways to prevent this from happening.
This problem is definitely best addressed with the installation of non-return valves that will block the rats from going near the toilet bowl from the sewer. You can also place guards within the pipe, but installing a non-return valve will be a much easier solution to consider.
What Stops Rats From Coming Up the Toilet (Rat Blocker)
You are likely to have an inspection chamber outside of your home that is covered. This is great because this gives you an easy access point to stop the rats from entering your home from the sewage system with a rat blocker to make sure they cannot enter.
You can block the sewer rats from entering the sewer and swimming towards the toilet with a device known as a non-return valve or, rat blocker, which is a stainless steel flap that attaches to the sewer drain (flush your toilet to see which pipe takes the waste out). The valve has a flap on the end which allows the wastewater to pass under the valve but locks in place on the other side to keep rats from entering through the valve from the other side.
This device is relatively easy to install and can stop sewer rats dead in their tracks.
How to Get Rid of Rats in the Toilet
You may be wondering how sewer rats can get from the sewer system into drains in the first place, and it is actually a lot more common than you may think. Rats and other rodents have long been associated with drains and sewers and can move back and forth between the two.
These habitats are moist, dark, and safe, which are three attractive qualities to rats. Rats are also drawn to homes and businesses, especially restaurants since an abundance of easy-to-reach food and water is available, as well as a range of places to make a nest.
Rats can get into drains by traveling along with the sewer system and smelling along for food, which will naturally lead rats back to residential homes and businesses. The rodents are highly-skilled when it comes to climbing, therefore, rats will easily find holes or cracks in drains which can lead them right into a residence.
It is important to point out that there is really no way to remove and prevent rats from infesting sewers and drainage systems; there are just far too many of them to find. But, you can certainly prevent the rodents from accessing your drains and crawling up inside of your home.
You may not visibly see the rats coming, however, if you ever notice signs of rats droppings, chewed paper, and electrical wiring, noises and thumps inside of the walls or even the drains or, small holes in the walls, there is a high possibility that your home or business has rats.
To get rats out of your drains, there are many things to keep in mind and numerous ways to prevent the rodents from setting up shop and coming up your toilet.
Inspect the Drains and Pipes
You will obviously want to ensure that your pipework is sealed and has no easy entry points for the rodents to enter. This basically means that there are no obvious openings around the discharge stack or worse, openings or holes within the lines themselves.
If you perform a routine inspection around your home and notice any openings, you can immediately call a drainage professional to address the problem. There are many ways to address these problems with a wide range of products and procedures to prevent the rats from gaining access to your home.
Traps
Rats can also gain easy access to your home through the ventilation pipes, which will require something a bit more like a trap to keep the rats from entering the home. If you have a discharge stack, the rats may also try to enter from the outside when wandering around on your property.
You can install small, metal cages right above the pipes in the discharge stack. These cages will trap the rats and prevent them from entering the discharge pipe.
This procedure is not for the squeamish since the rats will have to be removed.
What Happens if You Flush a Rat Down the Toilet?
If you flush a rat down the toilet, be prepared for a particularly nasty clog that could occur if the rat dies in the piping. Furthermore, if the rat does survive the flush, this will not remedy the problem, and will only cause the rat or another rat to repeat the process over again.
You could cause your entire system to back up, and at this point, you will also need to hire a plumber to come and correct the problem. This would lead to quite an expensive mess, and you would not want to have to add another bill along with the money you have spent to fight against the rats.
If there is a living or dead rat in the toilet, you can call pest control to come out and address the problem. Additionally, pest control can also check for a rat infestation, and to inspect to see if it looks like that could be the larger issue.
Can Rats Come Out of the Toilet?
Once rats find their way to the top of the toilet, the rodents can come out of the toilet if the lid is raised. It is also possible for a larger rat to lift the lid of the toilet with its head to exit the toilet and search the surrounding area for food.
It’s odd to think of toilets as a common sanctuary for rodents, but pest control professionals will regularly check toilets for rats during a common inspection. More often than not, the reasons that rats choose to come out of the toilet are related to food.
So, if you have noticed that rats are coming out of your toilet and you are actively treating the rodents, it can also be helpful to keep all food sealed in kitchens or other areas to make your home less attractive to rats.
Summary
Rats in the toilet are more common than people may think. At , we can provide the following service:
- Inspect your property to identify the source and extent of your rat infestation. Once located we will begin treatment by laying rodenticides and/or traps, all within a controlled and safe environment.
- We will return, reset, replenish, and dispose of any dead rodents from your property within a one-week period.
- Upon our third and final visit, we will remove all rodenticides and traps, talking you through recommendations to reduce the risk of any future infestations.
Contact us today for a free quote and to answer any questions you may have about this alarming but common rat problem.
