A man in Queensland, Australia found pythons in his toilet twice in one week. They were coastal carpet pythons if we want to get specific about it.
On October 22, Hervey Bay Snake Catchers, which wrote about its tussle with the pythons on its Facebook page, were called to remove a female snake that worked its way into the man’s toilet before shedding its skin.
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The team had to cut open the plumbing underneath the house to get the snake out. The only reason it came out was because it had been “annoyed enough” by all the workers.
Problem solved. But then, days later, on October 25, the Hervey Bay Snake Catchers team was called back to remove a male python who, they suspect, was attracted to the scent of the previous female python. Coastal carpet pythons can grow to be over 9 feet long. They’re not venomous and they are mostly harmless to people unless you have a natural fear of snakes, in which case irrationality will coil around you like it’s a nonvenomous, ultimately harmless python and will wring every last bit of life out of you.
The pythons also do important work in their environments, as they help control local pest populations. Encounters with humans are actually quite rare, despite the way they’d seen when the occasional article like this one floats through your social media feed.
It’s especially rare for a snake to slither its way up toilet pipes, but it does happen from time to time. As for how the python even got there in the first place, it likely entered through gaps or pipes leading from the roof where snakes often rest. Perhaps Australia should consider instituting a Python Challenge like Florida to limit some of their numbers.
