Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Frog Sitch



Okay.. I waited around last week and the plumber never came. We have had one more frog since... today I thought I'd call another plumber. The answer I got was "maybe they came in through the air vents under the house, call a heating and air guy" That was a bit aggrivating. Thanks for the help Mullin Plumbing! Anyway so I turned to my trusty old friend Google. And here are some things I found:

1. The frogs get in through the roof vent and come up through the toilet. It has happened to me twice. No way to avoid it unless you put a screen on the plumbing vents. This will also keep the roaches out.

2. Years ago my parents had a toilet that wouldn't flush right, plumber found nest of tree frogs in the vent stack near the roof. Easy access to the toilet if you know how to swim, swimming rat was much more disturbing.

3. My aunt, who lives in Tampa, Florida, was cleaning her downstairs toilet today. She poured in a bleach solution and left to let it do its work. Shortly, she heard her dog barking furiously and splashing noises coming from the bathroom. When goes in, she discovers a very large bullfrog (exactly how large I don't have specifics on) in her toilet bowl. She removed the frog and put it in a container full of clean water, hoping to wash the bleach off of it, but alas the frog died shortly afterwards (if this behavior sounds at all odd, it may help to know that my aunt works for an animal cruelty prevention and rescue organization).

Understandably distressed, she calls the water company and asks how a frog could get up through her toilet. She's lived in this house for 22 years with no such incident, although they have had snakes get in through open doors and trapped in their swimming pool filter. The employee from the water company said that, yeah, it happens. Her sewer system is apparently "open," meaning that at some point a pipe has separated between her house and the main sewer line (or in the sewer line itself, in which case other people on her block could experience similar situations). She asked "Well what is there to keep a snake from coming up through my pipes and getting in the toilet?"

4. All houses have a sewer drainage access for cleaning, perhaps there is an opening and it got it there - OR - you have one hell of a cleaver frog on your hands!!

5. this happened to me last night only it was a toad. I am almost certian that it came in through my septic. The plumbing works both ways! After falling into my vent pipe he probably followed the sounds of flowing water everytime I flushed the toilet until he found the sewer drain pipe. Then he simply followed the pipe to the source.

6. The WGH is convinced the little froggie came up through the toilet itself, i.e. via our septic system.


Conclusion: I AM NOT CRAZY! But we still need to find the source!



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3 comments:

Mike Stenglein said...

my Dear wife: Sanity is always a matter of Perspective! J/k Thank you for researching our situation! I will cap the vents this weekend.

Bethany Patrice said...

maybe you can cook some frog legs. :)
How are your cats reacting to the visitors?

plumbing tampa fl said...

You should have contacted plumbers tampa fl. They'll come on time.