Rat in the Toilet: What to Do Right Now

Close the lid right now so the rat cannot jump out, then squirt liquid dish soap into the bowl and flush. Public Health Seattle & King County says the rat will usually head back down the same pipe it came up, though you may have to flush more than once.

Here is why the soap matters. It breaks the surface tension of the water and cuts the natural oils on the rat's fur, King County explains, so the rat has a hard time staying afloat. Raise the lid just enough to squirt the soap in, keep your hands clear of the bowl, and lower it again before you flush.

Stay calm and keep your hands out of the water. A cornered rat can bite, so skip any plan to grab it with gloves, tongs or a bag. Keep kids and pets out of the bathroom while you deal with it.

If flushing does not work, leave the lid shut and call a pest control company to remove the rat, as King County advises. If it climbs out and gets loose, close the bathroom door so it stays in one room and set a rat trap in there.

Push a rolled towel against the gap under the door so the rat has one less way out. Use a snap trap sized for rats, since a mouse trap is too small for the job.

It also makes sense to report what happened. For people outside the city of Seattle, King County suggests reaching out to the public utilities department in your town or to the local sewer district.

Yes, but it is rare. Seattle has an estimated 2.5 million toilets, and Public Health Seattle & King County hears about 50 rat-in-the-toilet complaints a year, according to its Public Health Insider blog.

The route is real, though. UC IPM notes that rats can swim through sewers and get inside through toilets or broken drains. Norway rats are the more powerful swimmers, while roof rats are the better climbers.

A 1994 ICWDM handbook chapter on rodent-proof construction says rats now and then get in through toilet traps in inner-city areas where the sewers are full of rats. The sign it describes is tracks and water on the rim of the bowl. If you find wet prints on the rim or seat but never saw a rat, take it seriously.

Rats come up toilets because they live in the sewer and can pick up the smell of food that goes down your drains. King County adds that homes with old side sewers and old plumbing face a higher risk.

Weather plays a part too. Floods and heavy rain can push rats into the side sewer, the line that runs from your house out to the street. Kitchen drain pipes are too narrow for a rat, King County notes, so the toilet is the opening it tries.

The toilet is not the only way in. The Allegheny County Health Department in Pennsylvania says rats can make their way up the lateral house drain, then get inside through a basement floor drain with no cover, through roof drains or sewer vents, or up into the toilet bowl. So think about every drain in the house, not only the one in the bathroom.

Look outside as well. King County says a burrow in the yard that opens back up again and again after you fill it can be a sign that rats are living in your sewer.

Keep the lid down when no one is using the toilet, keep food out of your drains, and close off the other openings rats use to reach the plumbing. If rats keep showing up, have the sewer line itself checked.

Start with what you do every day. Closing the lid after each use is an easy habit, and it is what King County recommends. Scrape plates into the trash instead of rinsing scraps down the sink or flushing leftovers, since food smells are what pull rats toward your pipes.

Then cover the gaps. Put a cover on any open basement floor drain. UC IPM advises putting screens over the tops of rooftop plumbing vent pipes that are more than 2 inches in diameter. Last, walk the outside of the house and check the other rodent entry points, such as gaps where pipes pass through walls.

Some homes have a backwater valve on the main sewer line. The City of Cote Saint-Luc in Quebec, Canada, tells residents to have their normally closed backwater valve inspected by a professional, because these valves keep sewer water, and rats, from coming in through the plumbing. If you are not sure your home has one, a plumber can tell you.

Often you need both. A pest pro handles the rat and the entry points around your home, and a plumber handles the pipes the rat used to get in.

The Allegheny County Health Department says that when rats are getting in through the sewer system, a plumber can run a sewer camera through the house drain and the lateral line to see what shape they are in. The camera shows the pipe from the inside, which is how you find a break or opening a rat could use.

Call pest control first if a rat is still loose in the house or keeps coming back. Bring in a plumber when you suspect old or damaged sewer pipes, or when a yard burrow keeps reopening. Tell each one exactly what you saw, including any wet tracks on the rim, so they know where to look.

Once the rat is gone, treat the seat, rim, lid and the floor around the toilet as soiled, since the rat may have left urine or droppings on its way in or out. CDC has a set method for this kind of mess, and it starts with gloves and a disinfectant spray.

Pull on rubber, latex or vinyl gloves and spray the rim, seat and any wet tracks on the tile with a bleach solution or a registered disinfectant until they are soaked. Let it sit as the label directs, then wipe up with paper towels and bag them. Keep the broom and shop vacuum away from that bathroom floor until it is disinfected, since dry sweeping can lift germs into the air.

Wash your gloved hands, take the gloves off, then wash your hands again. Scrub the inside of the bowl with your usual toilet cleaner and flush. The guide on how to clean rodent droppings safely walks through every step if you turn up more droppings elsewhere in the house.

Get a pest pro involved if the rat will not flush, if it got loose in the house, or if you see signs of rats more than once. Wet tracks on the rim, rats in more than one drain and a yard burrow that keeps reopening all point to an ongoing problem rather than a one-time visitor.

Here is what the visit usually covers. A pro inspects the house inside and out, finds where rats are getting in, including floor drains, roof drains and gaps around pipes, sets traps for any rat already inside, and then seals the openings so new rats cannot follow. The page on professional rodent exclusion explains how that sealing work is done.

Some fixes belong to a plumber, so a good pest pro will tell you when the pipes are the real issue. Before you book anyone, ask if the company holds a state pest control license and how it handles rats that come from the sewer.