Seattle Public Health Officials Give Hilarious Advice to Solve ‘Toilet Rat’ Epidemic

Seattle and King County’s Public Health department posted what could only be referred to as an “instructional cartoon” about what to do if you find a rat in your toilet. Apparently, the weather is forcing rats to crawl up residents’ plumbing to escape rising water levels in sewers. The series of cartoons was posted on Facebook, and each one is more outlandish than the last.

“Flooding or heavy rains may drive them into the side sewer lines that run from your house to the street,” their website claims. Kitchen pipes are too small for rats, so instead, they’ll try to come up through your toilet.”

Their solution isn’t particularly inventive, though. They suggest that you just close the lid and flush. 

“Well, what if the rat is still there?” you’re probably asking yourself. Don’t worry, they’ve already thought of that. You need to run to the kitchen and grab dish soap to lather the rat up.

I’m somehow very surprised that the official toilet rat guidance from the city of Seattle is to slather the rat in dish soap and flush until it disappears or clogs. I can’t imagine it’s a permanent solution, that rat is just lurking around the next bend. pic.twitter.com/CSKP4qiV7s

— Chickadee ❄️ (@chckdchckd) December 23, 2025

As if living in Seattle wasn’t bad enough with the rampant crime and brazen drug problems, now you’ve got to battle with rats over control for your bathroom.

The saga leaves me with a couple of questions: which artist is doing rat-based informational cartoons, and did their health department learn these tips from experience or are they just guessing?

Whatever the answers may be, I hope I never have to find out how effective their suggestions are.