This reminds me rather stongly of a certain Basilisk in a certain book. I'm amazed it can actually happen, but it sounds like it's not unusual.
quote:The creature has been spotted on several occasions and homeowners have put bricks on toilet seats in a bid to keep the beast from popping out of the pan.
posted
Oh man. That could have been a bad situation. I mean, just think if you were going to the bathroom and... I won't go any further, but the thought creeps me out. Posts: 1789 | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote: A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals (RSPCA) said it was not uncommon for snakes to be found in household sewage pipes.
See I didn't know this, they should tell people this. And they named the snake Keith Posts: 349 | Registered: May 2003
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quote:This thread title sounds vaguely obscene . . .
I know. Totally unintentional initially though. And I thought about changing it, but then I thought, well if people have dirty minds, let them think what they like. Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
That scares me. And I actually love snakes, have kept several for pets over the years. But I have never owned, nor will I ever own, a non-native or venomous species. It is bad for a non-native species to get loose in a foreign environment. And any snake that gets big enough to kill you is so dangerous. I've got two small children at home and the thought of something like that coming out of the toilet just freaks me out. It would eat the 5 month old whole.
Posts: 232 | Registered: Jan 2005
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There was an episode of the X-Files that involved something coming up out of the toilet and bathtub drain. I would be so scared to find a snake in my toilet.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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quote: I've got two small children at home and the thought of something like that coming out of the toilet just freaks me out. It would eat the 5 month old whole.
Not trying to get too technical here, and definitely not trying to tell you that you don't have reason to fear a huge snake coming out of your toilet ( ), I just don't want snakes of this sort getting a bad rep that they don't deserve. The snake in the picture is a Columbian red-tailed boa constrictor - a notoriously non-agressive and relatively harmless large snake. There have been no recorded fatalities by this species in this country (or anywhere else, to my knowledge - correct me if I'm wrong). Also, a full-grown redtail can't swallow anything much larger than a 5-lb rabbit. I'm not saying that a child wouldn't be at risk of attack from a snake of this size, and I certainly wouldn't advise unsupervised interaction between the two, but to say that a snake like this would eat your child is only spreading fear and misunderstanding of these animals.
This is a good article if anyone is interested in more about the reality of large snakes and the (often considerable) dangers some of them pose.
Posts: 1225 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
That is the most horrible horrible story. I don't care if it is mostly harmless. I am not in favor of anything that thrives in sewer pipes popping up out of my toilet and slithering around my house.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
The koi in my pond were going crazy the other day when I got home from work. I could see them jumping as I drove up. Then I saw the snake. The snake saw me too and slide off a rock into the water. I went in the house and came out with my wife's salad tongs. I could see the stinker lying on the bottom of the pond, so I slowly reached in with the tongs and grabbed it. Unfortunately, the snake wriggled loose and fell in a bush and got away.
But it must still be near by. Today I found a dried-out koi in the rocks near the pond. Something must have made it jump out.
Any ideas on how to trap a 3-foot water snake?
Maybe I need bigger fish. These are only 4 inches long.
Any ideas on how to sanitize salad tongs?
Posts: 2655 | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Evie3217: Oh man. That could have been a bad situation. I mean, just think if you were going to the bathroom and... I won't go any further, but the thought creeps me out.
Yeah. There's a scene from "Snakes on a Plane" that is rather disgustingly apropos.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Sep 1999
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posted
I'm impressed. I didn't think this sort of thing actually happened.
Then again, I don't think about snakes existing in the real world. I know they most definitely do, but there's a little part of me that won't truly believe it until I see one.
Posts: 866 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Then again, I don't think about snakes existing in the real world. I know they most definitely do, but there's a little part of me that won't truly believe it until I see one.
Right there with you.
Ain't the Hawaii kids cute, folks?
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
I'll never go to toilet again. At least not in Britain or Norway.
Can't believe the film "Flushed Away" spoke nothing of this. I'm going to sue the film producers now, that film gives an entirely unrealistic picture of how hazardous sewers are like in reality.
Posts: 247 | Registered: Dec 2006
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posted
I find this story to be highly suspicious and likely an urban legend. First off, the picture is clearly posed or even photoshopped. It doesn't even match the story. In the story the man finds the snake on his bathroom floor and catches it a bucket before calling the authorities. But the picture shows the snake in the toilet, something no one in the story claims to have seen. Second, I find it highly improbable that a snake could slither through a pipe that is only slightly bigger than the diameter of the snake. Four of the five modes of snake locomotion are simply impossible in a confined tube. The fifth, rectilinear locomotion requires that the snake be able to grip the surface with its scales. The static friction inside a slippery sewer pipes is very unlikely to be sufficient for this. Inside the ceramic part of the toilet itself it is simply inconcievable.
Finally, this type of boa normally lives in trees not in the water. The idea of one living in the sewer and crawling alternately in and out of the neighbors toilets in just a bit too far fetch for me to swallow. I might be able to buy off on a garter snake or some other common water snake, but a red tailed boa?
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
I see skillery bumped this original thread, with a new question.
(Like avadaru, I love snakes, and have often caught them for other people when they are in areas they shouldn't be).
Skillery, the best way to capture a snake (rather than just reaching in a grabbing it, which I like to do) is to make yourself a snake hook. I have made them temporary in a flash out of a stick and a shoestring.
I simple tie one end of my shoestring securely to the end of a stick, and then create a big "loop" (lasso like) that allows the opposite end of the string to go back through the original knot. Then I can reach out and loop that loop over the snakes head (slowly), pull the string tight (lassoing the snake right behind the head), pick him up and drop him into a pillow case. That's the best way to transport them.
Hope this helps. I have done it many times, including retrieving one from a toilet (although on that one I used my bare hands)
My wife still hasn't forgiven me for using her salad tongs. I don't know what she'll do when she finds out what I've been doing with her good pillow cases.
Posts: 2655 | Registered: Feb 2004
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