Some of these can see through walls or at least detect the heat from something on the other side of it or in the wall itself. Does anyone use them to locate bees in homes or feral hives out in the woods?
Good point. For my work we have a thermal imager. Even during the day we can see the difference between air temp and body temp. We were told we can not use them to look at houses for heat sources because that would be considered a search, and eveyone knows we would then need a search warrant. Our fire deprtment has a better one that can detect heat source in walls. If the bees are putting out enough heat then you should be able to see them in a wall.
Surely there are ways to get around that though. Sign a waver or something that has them Asking you to use it but limited to the walls of their home. Don't people normally use them to detect ventilation and heating problems around windows anyway?
I have looked into them. The right kind to do what you want is very, very expensive. $35,000-$50,000. The cheaper ones I am told won't do what we want them to do. This comment comes from a few companies I talked with that make them. I know an engineering firm that charges $500.00 an hour to use their services for infrared thermal imaging.
Speaking of cameras - I bought a Mr. Lee Cat Cam to put in my hive, but I'm having trouble getting it to work right, and now that the past week has been cold and rainy, I haven't been able to install it in my hive somewhere:
http://www.mr-lee-catcam.de/
I tried it out on my dog a few times and got marginal results. Sorry - not infrared, but a camera nonetheless ;)
UtahBees
will it work in the dark? RDY-B
It's a digital camera, and I was planning to put it by the entrance, so it has some better light