My Tundra and the rats that almost killed me

"You have bugs"

In late 2016 I had a random swelling attack of my tongue. It swelled to 3 or 4 times it normal size. A few days later my bottom lip swelled to 5 times its normal size. Within a few weeks I was having random swelling attacks (feet, hands, tongue). One attack almost killed me when my throat started swelling shut fast – ER doctor said it was the weirdest thing he had seen because I had no known food allergies and that had I gone another 30 minutes I would not have been able to breath at all. So I had to start carrying an Epi-Pen with me in case of anaphylactic shock and the resulting angioedema. The swelling episodes went on for months, sometimes twice a week but random. Spent months doing blood work, allergy tests and thousands of dollars with “normal” doctors. Finally a friend said to try a naturopath doctor. I was open to anything as the “normal” doctors had no clue what was going on with me and could only prescribe drugs to deal with the symptoms. The naturopath doctor had me fill out 30 pages of questions asking about my health and symptoms. He did a urine test. Finally he sat me down and said “you have bugs”. I laughed at him. I thought, this guy is a quack! He said “I cannot prove that you have bugs in your body but everything points to bugs”. He gave me some natural supplements to take daily that, over time, would make my body inhospitable to parasites. The symptoms started going away within a few days of starting the supplements, less frequent attacks and less severe. 90 days later I was done with the supplements and I have not had another episode. The natural supplements cost ~$300 total for 3 months. I thank God for giving us solutions in the natural world and doctors that think outside of the box.











Finding the rats!

One day about two weeks into taking these supplements I was driving down the road and went to spray my dirty windshield – pulled the wiper stalk and nothing came out, not a drop. We all know that when we run out of windshield washer fluid near the end it dribbles. So when I got back home I popped the hood and found my windshield washer hoses all chewed up. Then I saw all the rat droppings all over the engine cover. I was kinda pissed. That day I took my Tundra to the DIY spray off car wash place, popped the hood and starting washing all the poop off. Then, out nowhere this big wet rat went running across the top of the engine! I screamed like a little baby!! Then I started cussing at the SOB. A few other people where there and one person yelled “there he goes!!!” – there where?!? I said. Near the headlight! The rat had already disappeared somewhere back down into the engine bay. I drove home thinking “this damn rat is gonna jump out and crawl up my leg!” I went home, opened the glove box, pulled out the cabin filter and there it was, tons of rat poop in my cabin filter and some of the actual washer hose. I thought “is this what has been making me sick?” I did some interwebs research and there (finally) was the answer. There are lots of viruses, bacteria and parasites humans can contract from various types of rat / rodent exposure. The writing was on the wall.


"Marge the Barge" – she was a good truck


RAAAAATTT!!!!!







That week I took my Tundra to the local Toyota dealer and they found rodent poop in my dashboard of my 2013 Tundra and I was breathing aerosolized (dried up, dusty, airborne) rat feces (poop, crap, droppings) through the vents. They pulled everything apart, cleaned it with some crazy steam / jet water system and them sanitized the entire system with some hard core chemicals. They put some metal screens in places to prevent any further infestations. But I was down right scared of dying at that point. I even ran an ozone generator in the cab for a few hours. Ultimately I wholesaled my Tundra to a dealer.




I hope sharing my personal story will help someone prevent and/or identify any problem with rodents, their health and their trucks. Happy to answer any questions I can.


Not again

Crazy thing is it happened again a year later in my used 2012 Tundra that I got at CarMax. Soy-based electrical wire insulation is yummy! This time the rats only got into the engine bay (not the dash) and chewed up $9000.00 worth of engine wires. My car insurance paid for the repairs. Then I went and got another Tundra.

 

Wow, glad you're ok..

Thank you for the informative story...

 

Dang dude! Thank you for sharing and glad you’re still here and bug free. I’ll keep this in mind

 

damn! Happy to hear you're healthy! Glad we don't have rats

 

Problem: rodents
Solution: https://mouseblocker.com/

 

What natural supplement did you use?

I saw a mouse scurry across my snowy driveway last week so this shit is definitely on my mind. Hopefully a hawk or the bobcat got him.

 

Wow!!!! Inlet screened, pink Dove, pine sol, peppermint oil all live under my hood in various places. Chlorine pool tabs on the driveway under the truck and perimeter in a few places, it can't hurt anything but my wallet a bit. Figure if I can afford the truck, then I can buy the tabs. Zero deductible on comprehensive too! Check your insurance folks, zero ded. On comp. Does not increase premiums very much. Covers stolen cats too!

 

The supplements were all from Standard Process. A combo of Wormwood Complex, Zymex II and ... uhhh, I will need to check on the 3rd one. I took all 3 - three times daily for 90 days.

 

Son of a bitch.

 

Wow, that’s crazy. I’m glad you are OK. Thanks for sharing as that could happen to anyone.

 

So very considerate to share your story! Way to go OP!Please post the dosage(mg) and name of the 3 supplements just in case another reader here needs help. You just might save a life by doing so. I can almost guarantee you are not the first or the last case of this. Just the first to share such details and doing so will certainly motivate those who are on the fence about taking proactive steps to prevent such an event. Stay safe and I wish you much good luck with your newest Tundra!!!

 

CRAZY! Glad you are ok!

 

Man it sounds like you sure had a run of bad luck.

 

One year I noticed some debris under the cowl on my riding lawn mower. I started digging it out with my hand. All of a sudden a mother rat runs out. I am really surprised she did not bite me because she had babies. I had open soffits on my shed. They are now covered with hardware cloth and no problems. We have lots of rat snakes and coyotes. Without them and my GWP the rats would be out of control. When I had my Ranger bass boat they would get in it. They did not chew any wires but one time they chewed a livewall hose. I got to the lake and heard water running in my hull. Fortunately I was able to close the valve.

 

Yep, definitely a cat problem!
Our cat used to bring us baby bunnies and only eat the head, leaving the body and ears perfectly in place

 

My cats sucked. They would go out the dog door, find a mouse / rat and bring it back and set it free in the house still alive. FML

crazy story OP. Glad you’re feeling better.

 

You're not the first person to post pics of rats/mice in their cabin air filter and the last time I saw it I actually warned them about Hentavirus. That stuff is no joke. I'm glad you're ok OP.

https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/index.html

 

Parking with alot of lights seems to help keep rodents away too. My truck gets parked on the driveway in between 2 super bright flood lights that stay on all night. Keeps the rodents and the robbers away.

 

My aunt lived in a super undeveloped part of the desert but still in the city; usually pop the hood and put a 60w work light under the engine to try and detour mayhem, she had like 7 cars though, I’m pretty sure one was just a bait car so the rats didn’t mess with the others!

 

Glad your feeling better.. Stay strong.

 

Do you live next to a Grain Elevator? Where are these somma guns coming from?
Glad it's been figured out for you.. Wow!

 

Holy Sheeite man...glad you figured it out!!

 

That's just a little scary. Glad you got it figured out. We had mice in our 4Runner. They shredded our cabin filter. We had mice in our older 4Runner also. I started to use a bucket to catch mice. I killed 48 mice in one week.

 

That is absolutely bonkers.

My wife had a 2011 Prius. We were out for dinner and drove separate. As we pulled out of the parking lot to head home, she calls me screaming, "Something laid eggs or something in my car!" We pulled over and there were 4 or 5 baby mice on the right by the pedals. She was obviously losing her shit and I drove her car home. Luckily, we didn't have any wire damage, just air filters and didn't look like they had been there too long.

 

Yeah, if that was my wife, that car would have been on autotrader that same night.

 

Thanks for sharing, OP. I need to keep an eye out for this in my area...we trapped and killed a rather large rat in our basement about a month ago, and a neighbor found another dead one in the street a couple weeks ago. Until then, we'd seen no signs of them around our house.

 

In Buffalo NY area, a couple years back, My 2005 Tacoma had mouse droppings and hickory nuts pilled on the cabin filter, and it smelled like mouse piss.

Could be why my blower motor isn't currently working. Thank you for the heads up and reminder to check my truck.