Anyone use the $100 Bosch or Ryobi scopes from Home Depot for looking into walls for noise-making critters?

UPDATE:--FINALLY got the Milwaukee Borescope---it had the smallest camera/snake and best warranty of what was available locally.

Scoped the wall this morning in 4 places due to the cross members 'tween the wall studs.

Found NO CRITTERS and NO droppings.

She heard the noises last nite again, but not the 2 previous nights.

She offered my wife and I to stay overnight in her house so I can hear the noises!

I'm about at a loss, BUT want to finish this challenge.

ANY ideas?

I didn't know they had them but I'm sure my son will get one despite the fact that our luck with these type of tools stinks.

John,

Have a Milwaukee and the ryobi. The Milwaukee is the best choice in my opinion and carries a 5 yr warranty.

They definitely can be a help, have taken pics of bats with pups with it numerous times to educate the client.

Only as good as it can be though as it is hard to scope a curved wall void while navigating and so forth.

Plus you can and will scratch the lens cover making for less readability until fixed.

Both are rechargeable units and work for their purposes. Nothing crazy cost wise and can be a handy
helper.

We tried an extech unit with articulating feature like you see on swat and spy type movies. For the cost at the time wasn't worth it but far better resolution and many have wireless displays so you can probe while seeing the display on a larger tablet.

Definitely in my opinion worth having for the day to day use.

Justin

Are you talking "Scopes", as in optical devices, or snake cam's?

Snake cams.....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001AOVBK8?pc_redir=1404395360&robot_redir=1

I used mine Thursday after drilling a small hole thew the floor joist,,, discover a 3in soils stack had been compromised,,, allowing rats to enter the home from the sewer...

Saved the customer 300 dollar by not having to order a smoke test......

Here's where I've got a sidewinder covering the hole.
4 days and nothing.
There is still a party in 1 wall, 6-8' from this opening, towards the center of the house.
It is an interior wall.
This sunroom was added and no way to get into space.
The wall is closed from bottom...no insulation under floor, so it's easy to see from below.
It is also closed from top after looking in attic.
So, I'm thinking of buying a lil scope, drill a hole in the kitchen wall and look down into the party zone.
And YES, the soffit has about a 1/4-1/2 gap as seen just past the trap.
The knucklehead installer has NO SUPPORT for it.

Nice Vinke!!

TraprJohn, sounds like a reasonable plan!

Snake cams, like Justin has put a link to, except what I'm seeing at HOme Depot is about $100 less.

see snake micro

Sorry about the misunderstanding. We also have a see snake and apparently some of our technicians are sober enough to use it.

I got confused because the whole idea of inspection devices is to see through the material without having to cut.

So, are you saying there is a tool to see the critters in a wall w/o drilling-cutting?

Yes, that's pretty much what I'm saying.

Used to be able to buy "X-ray vision glasses" out of the back of comic books. In my memory, they sure were a lot cheaper than 100 bucks.

Paul W.,
Here may be one useful purpose for thermal cameras http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthrea...e_advice#UNREAD
Just the first picture unless you are interested in doing honey bee colony removal.

Thanks Ron, I really do appreciate the post. I did the very same thing with a customers infrared, but once again, I didn't have to look through insulation. If somebody comes up with a scope that looks through our Wisconsin insulation, ( And I'm reasonably sure that the US government has;) put us down for the first order.

See my UPDATE on opening thread.

Anyone ever slept over a customers' house?....the wife would go for sure, which is no problem for the homeowner.

I have never spent the night at a client’s house. However, I have a few hours there just listening to satisfy my own curiosity. Only one time did I hear the noise. Working together with the client (a locally highly recognized home inspector),we finally tracked the noise down to his sound system speakers. During an initial outside inspection I did find a bat colony though, so the bat removal made it worthwhile.

traprjohn, we were invited to do the same at a home in santa fe, honestly was close to doing it just to help them out, but couldn't work it into the schedule. So many things can make noise in a house or structure, tough deal....

If I drill into a ceiling how far back will the camera work? Could I see 10 feet back? 15 feet back?

Thanks