I have developed a reputation locally regarding mice in my house. When I first moved to Pennsylvania, I caught about 20 mice in 2 weeks inside my bedroom. Needless to say, I started to get aggressive about trapping them. It started with regular mouse traps, sticky traps, the kind that have little flaps that trap them side, wind up multiple-mouse catchers, and now an electronic one.
But, I'm not satisfied. It seems you must find their regular paths to place the traps for them to find it. So, I was thinking about video surveillance.
USB port Cameras are very cheap, and I've read they are sensitive to infrared if you remove the infrared filter. So, is it viable to use one to detect if and where mice are running around in my bedroom?
Will the cheap cameras detect the infrared wavelength of a mouse's body heat? (I have doubts) But, if it does, I imagine it would work well as a tracker. Perhaps I could also use one of the parabolic or spherical mirrors to get a 360 of the room?
The idea would be to allow the computer to track and record any mice over the course of a night. Then the next day view where the most used paths were. No actual 3d tracking or anything complex like that. Perhaps just color an image where any motion was detected.
With that knowledge, I can place the traps where the mice will find them. What do you all think?
Joe D