The neighbors of the University of Arizona are facing strange problem that includes small white rats that have been swimming through sewer pipes and into their toilets.

According to Laura Hagen Fairbanks, spokeswoman for the county's Wastewater Management Department, they are the kind that researchers use in labs.

However university representatives believe that the same type of white rats is also sold in pet stores as food for snakes and other animals.

According to an AP report, George Humphrey, spokesman for the Arizona Health Sciences Center says researchers first euthanize the rats and then double-bag them in red bio-waste plastic bags before taking them to Phoenix and cremating them.

"There would be no evidence that these are connected to us, and I wouldn't want that to become an urban myth," Humphrey said.

According to AP reports, an unnamed woman chose a unique way of disposing off the rat in her toilet by leaving the toilet seat up and put down sticky trap paper in the bathroom. Then she closed the bathroom door so the rat couldn't get into the rest of the house.

The rat was thrown away once he got stuck.

The Pima County Health Department however have ruled out chance of getting rabies or plague and said a live flea would be necessary to transmit the plague.