EXCERPTS: . . . "The customer has had years of intermittent soakaway issues and backfilling problems...probably due to the age of the system, as it's not on mains drainage," Ratcliffe told Newsweek.
[...] Ratcliffe posted photos of the "alien" growth on the subreddit r/TerrifyingAsF*** and has received thousands of upvotes and hundreds of comments speculating on what it could be.
[...] Hans-Curt Flemming, a professor emeritus at the University of Duisburg-Essen and an expert on biofilms, said the sinister slime could indeed be a biofilm. "The phenomenon is most probably a fungus, not an alien. It is [likely] a biofilm formed mainly by fungi but also inhabited by bacteria.
[...] Luckily, he did not think the growth poses any significant health risk. "As it sits in the draining system, it will not pose any health threat. It is not poisonous, but consumption is not suggested."
Emma Thompson, the executive officer of the British Mycological Society, said that from this image alone it was impossible to determine whether the growth was even a living organism. She suggested that it could be something nonorganic, like degraded sealant.
[...] However, having seen the growth firsthand, Ratcliffe was certain it was not simply a piece of old plumbing... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: . . . "The customer has had years of intermittent soakaway issues and backfilling problems...probably due to the age of the system, as it's not on mains drainage," Ratcliffe told Newsweek.
[...] Ratcliffe posted photos of the "alien" growth on the subreddit r/TerrifyingAsF*** and has received thousands of upvotes and hundreds of comments speculating on what it could be.
[...] Hans-Curt Flemming, a professor emeritus at the University of Duisburg-Essen and an expert on biofilms, said the sinister slime could indeed be a biofilm. "The phenomenon is most probably a fungus, not an alien. It is [likely] a biofilm formed mainly by fungi but also inhabited by bacteria.
[...] Luckily, he did not think the growth poses any significant health risk. "As it sits in the draining system, it will not pose any health threat. It is not poisonous, but consumption is not suggested."
Emma Thompson, the executive officer of the British Mycological Society, said that from this image alone it was impossible to determine whether the growth was even a living organism. She suggested that it could be something nonorganic, like degraded sealant.
[...] However, having seen the growth firsthand, Ratcliffe was certain it was not simply a piece of old plumbing... (MORE - missing details)
YazataNov 16, 2022 03:36 AM (This post was last modified: Nov 16, 2022 08:41 AM by Yazata.)
Somebody needs to take a sample of this and do a microscopic examination. Is it hard or soft?
I agree that it's hard to determine what it is just by looking at it. If it's biological, I'd guess fungus. But it might be something like molten plastic that somebody poured down the pipes that solidified in there.
But it certainly looks horrible though. If that came up out of my toilet, I'd probably die.
YazataNov 16, 2022 04:40 PM (This post was last modified: Nov 16, 2022 04:47 PM by Yazata.)
(Nov 16, 2022 11:40 AM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: Looks like wood to me. Sure that’s not some tree root, it is a common occurrence.
Z-man is right, tree roots invading plumbing has happened to me. Didn't look like this though. Regardless, that would be the most likely explanation of this, I think.
A great deal would seem to depend on whether it's hard or soft. It looks soft in the photos, but hard to say in real life.
Another thing it could be is fat. Perhaps some meat processor or something like that was dumping fat into the sewer where it congealed. That would likely have attracted all kinds of microbial growth (free food!).
(Nov 16, 2022 11:40 AM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: Looks like wood to me. Sure that’s not some tree root, it is a common occurrence.
Z-man is right, tree roots invading plumbing has happened to me. Didn't look like this though. Regardless, that would be the most likely explanation of this, I think.
A great deal would seem to depend on whether it's hard or soft. It looks soft in the photos, but hard to say in real life.
Another thing it could be is fat. Perhaps some meat processor or something like that was dumping fat into the sewer where it congealed. That would likely have attracted all kinds of microbial growth (free food!).
Might not be related but everyone should be aware of this. I worked in the natural gas pipeline industry for a number of years. I still hold a licence for NG pipeline inspector. Haven't used it much lately but I still get asked about related things. In the past, residential gas services were either steel or copper. Eventually the order came down to replace them, high maintenance costs and prone to leakage. Today they've pretty much all been replaced with plastic service lines, no corrosion yet it does have a shelf life underground, but no one seems to know how long. Regardless, the NG distributors either removed the steel & copper lines to your house or left them in the ground. They then bored through the soil while pulling a new plastic line to the service connection above ground at side of your home.
Some time after this houses began blowing up every so often. The direct drilled bore holes proved to be the problem. Unknown and unseen, the drill would sometimes bore through a house's sewer line as it pulled the new gas line along with it. Your sewer line could sit for years and nothing would happen but eventually the presence of the plastic line in your sewer line would clog it up, tree roots could also get in there. There was no way to locate old sewer lines nor were they on drawings, wasn't a requirement back then
Plumbers or whomever would use a cutting tool designed to rid the sewer lines of (tree root)blockages. Inevitably they might also hit the new live plastic gas service line that's completely through or even partially in contact with the inside of the sewer line their cutter is in. Either you get an instant fast flow of NG under pressure or a slow leak that might not get noticed right away. It could sit like that for a long time. Tree roots could also pull the service line apart, tear it or pinch it off. It was a matter of luck really. After a couple inquests the province decided that all sewer lines be videoed from inside the pipe before inserting a saw plus the NG distributor would check drains with gas detector. New sewer lines now have more ways to locate them than ever before. NG distributors have pretty much reinspected all the directionally drilled holes to ensure integrity.
Nov 15, 2022 07:13 PM
![[Image: mysterious-alien-toilet-fungus.jpg?w=790...1427c6ad6d]](https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2148963/mysterious-alien-toilet-fungus.jpg?w=790&f=eeac3307eb0a8b1fcf9c751427c6ad6d)
