Woman's bathroom discovery stuns internet: 'Had a heart attack'

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The perils of a bathroom shared between members of a family are many.

Bathtub water overflowing on the floor, kids piling dirty socks and undies just outside the laundry basket, wet towels scrunched up and stuffed on top of the towel rack instead of hung properly to dry.

In short, there are plenty of opportunities for grossness.

But when one mom pulled up her bath mat from in front of the shower, she likely thought she’d come across the grossest bathroom phenomenon yet.

In front of the shower stall, where the bath mat had sat, was a strange gray substance and a collection of what looked a lot like worms.

On closer inspection she realized her heated bathroom floors had caused the rubber bottom of her bath mat to melt, the sticky substance left behind pulling strings from the fabric of her bath mat.

"How do you deal with this,?" she wrote, posting the photo in a Facebook group.

Glancing at the photo, it definitely looks like her floor is covered in thick white worms.

Most group members thought the worst and shared their disgust.

"I thought that was f–king worms – had a heart attack for a minute there," one shocked person said.

"Did anyone else freak out thinking it was worms of some sort?!" wrote another.

The woman was at a loss, unsure of how to remove the long horizontal lines of sticky rubber from her lovely grey tile.

"Would love some advice on what would be best to use to get it off," the woman asked.

People had plenty of suggestions, some having experienced the same issue.

"I had a bath mat do that once," one person shared. "My tiles were old though so I used a scraper and I think eucalyptus oil."

Another person suggested eucalyptus oil wasn't strong enough to do the job.

"Oh no, do yourself a favor and go to Bunnings and buy GOO remover. It's bloody amazing on anything sticky!" they said.

Another person seconded the GOO remover suggestion, blaming the problem on "cheap bath mats."

Some people were shocked at the damage the mat had caused.

"Right, well I’ve added this to my list of ‘things I never thought I’d have to worry about but clearly I f–king do’," one person said.

One person said she’d use it as a cautionary tale for her kids.

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"I should show this to my stepson. I’m trying to teach him the habit and importance of hanging up the bath mat after a shower," she said.

Another woman's comment pointed to the importance of hanging the mat in between uses, if not to avoid having it melt to the floor, then for hygiene purposes.

"Has it never been moved? Washed? Hung up? My god," one person said.

Bath mats can be a breeding ground for germs and bacteria.

Cleaning professionals advise washing your bath mat once a week to keep it fresh and germ-free.

According to Expert Home Tips, the main problem is that bathroom mats don't get a proper chance to dry out in between uses so germs and bacteria begin to grow.

The severity of the issue will depend on how many people you live with and how often the bath mat is used or stepped on.

Yet another good reason to pick up that bath mat off the floor and hang it to dry.