As thermal imaging technology can detect things that cannot be seen by naked eyes, thermal camera has fast emerged as a popular equipment for pest control management in recent years.
Among its vast applications that include identify hidden electrical faults and perform home energy audits, thermal camera can also act as a powerful visual tool to effectively scan for pest existence in non-contact and non-invasive manner.
Here are 8 interesting video case studies on pest control with thermal imaging camera:
Termites
Termites can be so secretive that we may not realize they are eating away building structures.
The good news is, a high grade thermal camera can help to locate a section of your house or building that has been infested by termites.
Thermal imaging is an efficient way to pin point an area of termite infestation, and shows minute differences between walls. With a thermal camera, you can easily direct you termite control chemicals to the right area.
Mal Brewer shares excellent examples of termite detection with thermal camera in this video:
As shown above, thermal imaging is a non-destructive method of inspection when trying to locate the pests.
In other words, you don’t need to rip out walls, lift floorboards, or destroy the suspected area (such as a ceiling) just to check if there are termites.
This will help to minimize disruption and speed up the investigation process, whilst it also allows targeted chemical application without wasting your pesticides trying to guess where the termites are.
Here is another video case study shared by Rowan Gregson, who detected a termite colony using thermal imaging camera –
and you can even hear the sound of termites in this short footage of a pest inspection job completed in Londonderry near Windsor:
Far from being just a pest detection device, infrared thermal imager has many more benefits and applications – and it is especially popular among those who love DIY home improvement projects.
Recommended Read: Top 10 Home Improvement Uses of Thermal Imaging Camera
Rats, Rodents, and Squirrels.
Thermal cameras are best in terms of bringing about the identification of heat sources, with the use of infrared technology is capable to detect thermal patterns caused by body heat of small mammals such as mice, rats, or even from a wasp can be easily spotted through the use of thermal imaging camera.
Rats and rodents can be a nuisance and also hazardous to human health, as they can contaminate human food or spread virus leading to health issues.
With DIY pest inspection using thermal imaging, you can check whether there are rats in your building. For example, to discover if there rodents inhabiting your dark ceilings spaces.
In the video below, Peter Bennett shared how he detected active rodent infestation during a commercial building inspection in New Jersey:
Squirrels may not be harmful but they are mischievous and sometimes a nuisance, especially when they inhabit the space between your ceiling and your roof.
Squirrels can be pests when they are breaking and entering a building to seek food, water, warmth, or shelter. If the opening they find is not big enough, squirrels may simply make it big enough to get through; this damage your building in the process (such as wooden beams in attic for example) and weaken the structural integrity over time.
With thermal imaging camera, one can actually pin point the exact location where the squirrels has nested in and it is from that point to you can design the right strategy of removing or eliminating them.
Check out this video by Wildlife Gadget Man and see how used FLIR ONE thermal camera to monitor squirrels in his porch roof space:
While some rodents make use of wall insulation for nests and often carve out tunnels in the range of walls cavities, thermal imaging is brilliant in locating the missing insulation right over the cavity of a property’s wall.
Thermal camera can be used to locate the area where insulation has been removed off from the interior side of the wall by rodent. The gaps will be created upon the pockets of air that will bring a change in temperature of the wall surface, thus creating a contrast in the color pallet of thermal image. The thermal images will then demostrate the area of internal wall with improper or missing insulation (eg. removed off by the mice).
Interestingly, there is also heat seeking riffle using Pulsar Trail LRF. It is actually a modified thermal imaging camera that can show exact distance between a rodent and the riffle.
With the heat signature, it is very easy to detect and even confirm the distance before eliminating the animal (rodent or pest of your choice).
As shown below, heat seeking air riffle is a true reflection of what thermal imaging can do.
Pest control with air rifle and ATN thermal imager is another option to locate the rats and squirrels.
Recommended Read: 5 Best Thermal Imager for Home Inspection and Building Check
As soon as they are visible and within range, this riffle will unload rounds which will hit these rats and squirrels – thanks to thermal imaging:
Bees
Bees are good when they are out there in the wild. However, bees may become unwanted visitors. Sometimes, if the inhabit places that are hard to reach, finding them and eliminating them becomes a challenge.
With infrared thermal imaging technology, it is possible to locate and come up with the right bee control method without demolishing the whole ceiling or the whole structure.