Critters in the waste pipe - coming in from where?

I'm replacing a sink in a bathroom. A few days ago, I removed the old sink and stuffed a rag in the waste pipe while I gathered parts.

Last night, I was doing a dry fit, so I removed the rag and something caught my eye. There was a large blockage in the waste pipe. I grabbed a flashlight and took a closer look. I still wasn't sure of what I was looking at but thought it might be the head of a snake. I had a buddy come over to have a look and he thought it looked like the backside of a frog.

We emptied my shop-vac and sucked it out. I felt it pass through the vacuum hose. Once outside, we opened the vacuum and found nothing! The hose felt empty and we couldn't see anything inside of it, but it had to be in there. So, we hooked the hose to the other side of vacuum and out popped the obstruction pictured below.

This home is in FL. To my understanding, it could only have come in through a vent on the roof or up through the main waste line exiting the house.

I will get on the roof and install some kind of mesh cap on the vents but just curious to hear other thoughts.

Thanks.

Tipsy

Kudos for saving the little feller's life. In these parts we cannot use a screen cuz it would frost over and plug up.

One time I had to open the cleanout and pour water down the vent to flush out a bird. The scratching noise it was making inside the pipe was very disconcerting.

Do you have kids? It could have gone down the toilet recently.

bluebinky said:

Do you have kids? It could have gone down the toilet recently.

Click to expand...

No kids.

Tipsy

bluebinky said:

Do you have kids? It could have gone down the toilet recently.

Click to expand...