As a longtime outdoorsman, Ben Tedrick has dealt with snakes before. Just not one coming out of a toilet.

But Tedrick, an employee of the Bryan-College Station Eagle and author of a video blog series called "Life on the Ranch," was called into duty Saturday when a large rat snake popped out of a commode at a ranch house in north Brazos County, the newspaper reported.

In a still image from Tedrick's YouTube video, the snake begins to slither from the toilet. (William B. Tedrick / YouTube)

The house had been vacant for several years before utilities were recently activated. A crew of workers was cleaning up the place when Tedrick, whose video series have featured more typical rural adventures like trout fishing, building a rustic hutch or looking for deer and hogs in the river bottom, sprang into action.

This time, the blog would feature catching a snake. The video, posted Tuesday on YouTube, began with a close-up of a commode and a country-guitar soundtrack.

After fashioning a snake-catching tool from a mop handle and string, he "just waited for its head to come out," Tedrick told The Eagle. He would have left the snake to escape on its own but realized it was stuck in the pipe system.

"Plus, we had people working, trying to get stuff done, and it's just a distraction," he said. Realizing that might perhaps be an understatement, he added: "It's your worst nightmare."

Tedrick, poised to capture the beast once it pokes its head through his makeshift snake-catching device. (William B. Tedrick / YouTube)

Tedrick stood over the toilet, poised to close a small loop of string at the stick's end once the snake's head poked through.

The serpent appeared again, forked tongue and all, and started through the loop — but Tedrick reacted too fast, and the reptile quickly retreated. "Damn it," he said.

A child's curious voice was heard.

"There's a snake in the toilet," the man capturing the footage said. "Y'all get ready to run. Ben's gonna catch him."

At last, the snake appeared again. This time the capture was successful, and the loop tightened just behind the snake's head.

Now, however, there was the matter of pulling out the snake. Tedrick wrestled with the beast like an angler fighting a big fish, impressed by its strength: After extracting several feet of snake from the pipe, it coiled and pulled him forward.

"He's strong," Tedrick said.

Finally, the animal conceded and Tedrick yanked "every bit of 5 feet" of wriggling snake from the toilet as a woman screamed.

Tedrick stuffs the snake into a pillowcase so it can be transported to a safe distance away from the house. (William B. Tedrick / YouTube)

Tedrick carried the snake outside and eventually stuffed it into a pillowcase before driving it a distance away to be released into the wild into a high pile of wood where it could nest.

"That'll be a good place for him," he said. "He'll go right in there and go to sleep for the winter."

Snakes in your toilet is not a thing most people should worry about. Texas A&M professor Lee Fitzgerald, a herpetology expert, told The Eagle that such cases are rare.

Colder weather typically forces warmth-seeking snakes underground or into dry water pipes and sewers. This snake probably found its way into the rural house's septic system while it was dry, he said, then was flushed out when the water was turned on.

Tedrick said was surprised by how much of a fight the snake put up once it was captured.

"I was afraid his head was going to pop off, but he was perfectly OK," he said. "You could tell when I released him. It was like nothing happened."