SUN-HERALD (Gulfport, Mississippi) 27 July 07 How did unexpected guest wind up in toilet? (Ed Del Grande)
Q: I was recently on a business trip and staying in an upscale hotel. Upon returning to my room early one evening I went to use the toilet and when I lifted the lid I found a live frog in the bowl!
I called the front desk and they sent a maintenance man to my room to catch the frog. I assured the man that I do not travel with frogs and wanted to know who put the frog there. He informed me that the frog came up the sewer pipes.
My room was on the second floor and I can't believe this is possible. Is it true? Or did someone play a joke on me?
PS: I did get a free dinner out of this.
Huey
A: Huey, I hope the hotel did not serve frog legs for dinner. In my years as a plumber I have found many objects in toilet bowls, such as toys, combs and toothbrushes.
These objects are usually dropped in the bowl, and if conditions are right, can make their way downstream into the sewer system or septic tank because a home or hotel's drain lines do have open drain connections to the environment.
Keeping that in mind, it can be possible - if conditions are right - that a determined critter could work its way upstream, and the end point is usually a toilet bowl.
Although I have not seen this personally, I have heard of snakes finding their way home and biting people where the sun doesn't shine. As I said, this is what I have heard - not seen - so I cannot verify this for sure.
One thing I can tell you is that once on a service call, a woman had trapped a large rodent that came up in the bowl. She closed the lid on it and used duct tape to seal the lid until I arrived.
Once I assessed the situation, I declined to open the lid and recommended she call an exterminator. That is the closest I ever came to removing something that came into a toilet from the outside. I don't want to panic anyone with this column or gross people out, but these things can happen on rare occasions.
Just to be on the safe side, everyone should take my advice and check things out before sitting down. In Huey's case I'm sure he ended up jumping higher than the frog.
How did unexpected guest wind up in toilet?