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Triple master contractor Ed Del Grande
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By Ed Del Grande
Q: Hey, Ed, love your column and know you can give me the truth to this matter. I was recently on a business trip down south and staying in an upscale hotel. Upon returning to my room early one evening. I went to use the toilet and when I lifted the lid, I found a live frog in the bowl! I called the front desk and they sent a maintenance man to my room to catch the frog. I assured the man that I do not travel with frogs and wanted to know who put the frog there. He informed me that the frog came up the sewer pipes. My room was on the second floor and I can't believe this is possible. Is it true? Or did someone play a joke on me? P.S. I did get a free dinner out of this! Huey (Indiana)
A: Huey, I hope the hotel did not serve frogs legs for dinner!
In my years as a plumber, I have found many objects in toilet bowls such as toys, combs and tooth brushes. These objects are usually dropped in the bowl. If conditions are right, they can make their way downstream into the sewer system or septic tank, because a home or hotel's drain lines do have open drain connections to the environment. Keeping that in mind, it can be possible that a determined critter could work its way upstream. The end point is usually a toilet bowl!
Although I have not seen this personally, I have heard of snakes that find their way home and end up biting people where the sun doesn't shine. Like I said this is what I have heard, not seen, so I cannot verify this for sure.
One thing I can tell you is I once went on a service call where a woman had trapped a large rodent that came up in the bowl and she closed the lid on it and used duct tape to seal the lid until I arrived. Once I assessed the situation I declined to open the lid and recommended she call an exterminator. That is the closest I ever came to removing something that came into a toilet from the outside.
I don't want to panic anyone with this column or gross people out, but this is a real problem that can happen on rare occasions. Just to be on the safe side, take my advice and check things out before sitting down. In Huey's case, I'm sure he ended up jumping higher than the frog!
Ed Del Grande was born and raised in a family-owned plumbing business. With more than 25 years of experience in every aspect of construction, he holds current Master licenses in pipefitting, fire protection and plumbing. If you have a question for Ed, send him an e-mail at eddelgrande@hgtvpro.com.
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