CEDAR CREEK, Texas (WSVN) — A Central Texas woman is opening up about the terrifying moment when she raised her toilet seat to discover a slithery surprise underneath, but pest control experts say her wild encounter is pretty rare.
A picture taken by Cedar Creek resident Maria Jaimes shows something underneath the toilet seat.
That something was a snake, and Jaimes said she sat on it. Just like in a nightmare.
“I felt like a little like poke on my leg, and I said, ‘Oh, something happened, my husband left something on the toilet,'” said Jaimes. “So I then turn on the light, and then I see that there’s a snake under my toilet.”
The bathroom scare motivated Jaimes to take action.
“It does happen, and I just want people to be aware of their vents and what might come in through their toilets or sinks,” she said.
But pest control expert Alan Brown, technical director, ABC Home and Commercial Service, said snakes coming through the toilet is kind of rare.
“Snakes coming out of a toilet is an infrequent occurrence. In 25 years of pest control, I have never dealt directly with it, or have anybody that I know of deal with it,” he said. “I think it’s more of an urban legend most of the time, but it does happen.”
And there are many ways for residents to see a snake in their toilet.
“There’s a couple of ways that a snake can get into a toilet. One is through the vent stack up on the roof. They can hold their breath and come up through the toilet. They can also come up kind of through the sewage system, especially if there may be a break in the lines, or if there’s rats in the sewer,” said Brown. “And then, in some cases, they just make their way into a house traditionally, right, through a crack or a crevice, or they make their way in, and they go in if they’re looking for water and curl up in a toilet.”
As for what Jaimes did next, she now has chicken wire over their vent on the roof, because that’s how she believes their snake made its way in.
But Jaimes did not let a snake bite ruin her day.
“I still went to church. I got up and I went to church,” she said.
Jaimes went to the doctor to get checked out. The snake was not believed to be venomous.
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