VIDEO: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Rats Coming up Your Toilet

Warning: Explicit rat footage ahead.

If you don’t already live in fear of rats taking over your apartment, you will after this. A new video from National Geographic shows exactly how these rodents make their way up your toilet bowl, which is apparently quite a common city occurrence, according to Gothamist. Though we’re used to seeing them scamper around near the garbage bins, rats are pretty aquatically adept; they can tread water for three days and stay underwater without breathing for three minutes. Plus, their ribs are hinged at the spine, meaning they can fit through even the narrowest of pipes.

Once rats reach the top of the toilet bowl, they typically slide on the curved porcelain, leaving you with a few options–flush them, hold them down and drown them, or pluck them out and make them your pet. BUT, if you leave the seat up, the rat might be able to wriggle his way out and make himself at home in your apartment.

If the whole ordeal proves too disgusting for you, there’s always an exterminator. Gothamist spoke with one such man who works for Brooklyn Pest Control. He personally handles around a dozen rat-in-toilet situations per year and charges between $150 and $200 for his services, which often consists of simply flushing the rodent back where he came from. He feels rats are becoming an epidemic, partly due to the city’s resistance to using outside vendors to clean up the subways.

[Via Gothamist]

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