Beyond the Ladder: How Huntsman Wildlife Uses Advanced Camera Technology to Find Wildlife Problems
When wildlife gets into a home, the animal you see—or hear—is often only part of the problem.
A scratching noise inside a wall may be coming from an animal several feet away from where the sound is heard. A raccoon may enter through a roofline that cannot be safely seen from the ground. Young animals may be hidden beneath attic insulation. Birds, bats, squirrels, and mice can take advantage of openings that are difficult—or sometimes impossible—to inspect with a traditional flashlight and ladder.
At Huntsman Wildlife, we believe a professional wildlife inspection should involve more than simply walking around a property and looking for obvious damage.
That is why we continue to invest in specialized camera technology designed to help our team see more, investigate difficult areas, document what we find, and make better decisions before recommending a solution.
Here are five pieces of camera technology helping us do exactly that.
FLIR Infrared Camera: Seeing What the Human Eye Can't
One of the most useful diagnostic tools in our inspection equipment is our FLIR infrared camera.
Infrared imaging detects differences in surface temperature that may provide clues about what is happening behind walls, ceilings, insulation, and other building materials.
For wildlife inspections, that can be particularly valuable when we're investigating areas that cannot easily be accessed.
We may use infrared imaging to help:
Investigate suspected wildlife activity inside wall or ceiling voids
Locate potential concentrations of heat associated with animals or nesting areas
Search attic spaces for non-ambulatory young that may be difficult to visually locate
Investigate suspected entry points and pathways through a structure
Determine where additional physical inspection may be necessary
Infrared imaging isn't X-ray vision, and it doesn't allow us to literally see through walls. Instead, it gives our technicians another layer of information that can help narrow down where a wildlife problem may be located.
That means less guesswork and a more targeted inspection.
Ferret Plus Inspection Camera: Getting Into Spaces We Can't
Wildlife rarely chooses convenient places to live.
Animals and nesting materials can be located behind soffits, inside narrow construction gaps, underneath decks, around rooflines, inside wall voids, and in countless other areas where a technician simply cannot fit.
Our Ferret Plus inspection camera allows us to visually investigate spaces as narrow as approximately two inches.
Instead of immediately removing building materials just to see what is behind them, we may be able to insert the camera into a small opening and inspect the area first.
This can be especially useful when investigating:
Soffit and fascia cavities
Narrow attic spaces
Wall and ceiling voids
Gaps behind building materials
Difficult-to-access nesting locations
Areas where young wildlife may be present
Whenever possible, we'd rather know what's inside a space before we start opening things up.
DJI Mini 3 Drone: A Bird's-Eye View of the Property
Some of the most important areas of a home are also some of the most difficult to inspect safely.
Steep roofs, tall gutter lines, chimneys, dormers, roof intersections, and upper-story construction gaps may contain exactly the evidence we're looking for.
Our DJI Mini 3 drone gives our team another way to survey these areas from above when conditions and regulations allow.
Aerial inspection can provide detailed views of:
Rooflines
Chimneys
Gutters
Dormers
Soffits and fascia
Roof-to-wall intersections
Upper-story wildlife entry points
Large properties and surrounding habitat
The drone is also useful for understanding the property as a whole.
Wildlife pressure doesn't begin at the hole in your roof.
Wood lines, neighboring structures, water sources, drainage corridors, mature trees, outbuildings, and other environmental features can all influence wildlife activity around a property.
Seeing the property from above can help us better understand why wildlife may be using a particular structure in the first place.
Reveal Tactacam Pro 3.0 Cellular Cameras: Monitoring Wildlife When We're Not There
An inspection is a snapshot in time.
Wildlife, unfortunately, doesn't always cooperate with our appointment schedule.
An animal may visit a structure at 2:00 a.m. and disappear long before our technician arrives the next morning. Other problems may involve intermittent activity that is difficult to confirm during a single visit.
For certain situations, Huntsman Wildlife uses Reveal Tactacam Pro 3.0 cellular cameras to provide remote monitoring.
Depending on the situation, these cameras can help us monitor:
Wildlife traps
Suspected access points
Travel routes around a structure
Areas where intermittent activity has been reported
Rooflines and other vulnerable portions of a building
We even have clients who use Huntsman to help monitor rooftops or buildings throughout the year for potential wildlife activity.
Because these cameras are cellular-based, they can provide information without requiring us to physically visit the property every time something happens.
Instead of relying entirely on assumptions, tracks, noises, or occasional sightings, monitoring can help us better understand what animal is present, when it is active, and how it is interacting with the property.
Canon EOS Rebel: Bringing Distant Evidence Up Close
Sometimes the safest inspection tool is simply a really good camera and lens.
Our Canon EOS Rebel allows our technicians to capture detailed photographs of wildlife evidence from the ground or another safe observation point.
This can be particularly valuable when ladder access is impractical, unnecessary, or unsafe.
With long-distance photography, we can document things such as:
Wildlife damage
Nesting locations
Suspected entry points
Paw prints and tracks
Chewed or damaged building materials
Roof and gutter activity
Other wildlife evidence located above ground level
High-resolution photographs also allow us to zoom in after the image is taken and examine details that may be difficult to identify with the naked eye.
Better Technology Doesn't Replace Experience—It Makes Experience More Effective
None of these cameras can replace an experienced wildlife professional.
A thermal image still needs to be interpreted. A drone photograph needs someone who understands where squirrels, raccoons, bats, birds, and rodents commonly exploit a structure. Trail-camera footage only becomes useful when someone understands the behavior being captured.
Technology gives us more information. Experience tells us what that information means.
Our goal at Huntsman Wildlife is to combine both.
Why This Investment Matters to Our Clients
Wildlife control is investigative work.
Before we can recommend how to solve a problem, we need to understand what is happening, where it is happening, how the animal is getting there, and what conditions may be contributing to the problem.
Investing in specialized inspection equipment helps Huntsman Wildlife:
Reduce unnecessary guesswork
Investigate areas that are difficult to physically access
Document wildlife evidence for our clients
Identify potential access points
Monitor properties over longer periods
Improve technician safety
Develop more targeted wildlife-control and exclusion recommendations
Sometimes the answer is found on a ladder.
Sometimes it's hiding inside a two-inch construction gap.
Sometimes it's visible only after reviewing footage from the middle of the night.
And sometimes the best way to understand a wildlife problem is to look at the entire property from 200 feet away.
Our job is to have the right tools—and know when to use them.
Need Help Identifying Wildlife Activity Around Your Home?
If you're hearing scratching inside the walls, finding unexplained damage around your roofline, seeing wildlife around your property, or simply aren't sure where animals are getting into your home, Huntsman Wildlife can help investigate the problem.
Our team serves homeowners and property owners throughout the Greater Cincinnati area, using professional inspection techniques, wildlife knowledge, and modern technology to help determine what is happening and develop an appropriate solution.
Contact Huntsman Wildlife to schedule a professional wildlife inspection.