How To Do Pest & Termite Control With Special Video Documentation
A paper graph and a few photos used to be the whole record of a pest job. You got a one-page diagram with marks where the tech saw activity, maybe two muddy snapshots of a baseboard. That still has a place. It does not show what the crawlspace actually looked like, how far a mud tube ran, or whether a bait station was empty, half full, or packed with termites. Video does.
Pest management can be complex.
I have been filming parts of inspections and treatments for years. Started on a flip phone, honestly. Now it is a phone that focuses in low light, plus a small inspection camera on a cable. Owners remember the clip. The closing file can hold the video beside the report so later arguments about moderate damage have something to look at.
Why the extra ten minutes is worth it
You can rewind, and that is most of the value. A still photo of a sill plate might show staining. Thirty seconds of a slow pan shows if that staining is old water, soft rot, or termite galleries with frass still in the channels. You hear the tech name what is on screen, which matters when the wood all looks brown.
What gets filmed on a normal visit
On a general pest visit I do not film the whole house. Nobody needs twelve minutes of hallway. I film the parts that explain the finding or the work. I keep each clip short enough that a busy owner will watch it.
Quick side note. The little red light on the phone makes some dogs lose it, so I flip the phone or cover that corner. Not really about pests. Just saves the take.
Inspection walkthroughs
An inspection walkthrough is a slow lap. Camera steady, first around chest height so the room makes sense, then down at baseboard level where activity usually shows. I start outside. Foundation line, weep holes, the joint where siding meets brick, mulch piled on the wall, a gutter dumping onto the soil at the back corner. I say the street address and the date out loud at the start. Files get renamed and texts get compressed.
Inside, the camera follows the complaint. Ants in the kitchen means the trail on the toe kick, the gap behind the dishwasher, and the exterior wall where the line came in from a wet flower bed. On a quiet quarterly visit I may film one exterior lap and skip the interior.
Borescope and inspection cameras
Wall voids, plumbing chases, and tight crawlspaces are where a phone fails. A borescope, which most of us call an inspection camera, is a small lens on a flexible or semi-rigid cable with its own light. We drill a small hole, often in a closet or behind a baseboard where a patch disappears, and feed the camera in. The hole is about the size of the cable.
In a void I look for shelter tubes on a stud, carton material, drywall paper eaten off the back, or a sill hollowed along the grain. You rarely see a swarm in there, just where they traveled and fed. In a crawlspace the camera shows the subfloor, the piers, the vapor barrier, and tubes on a foundation wall. The owner does not have to crawl through insulation to trust the report.
I narrate position as I go. North wall, about four feet from the hatch, tube from the soil up to the girder. That line, stuck to the picture, beats a paragraph written from the truck two hours later. A clean void is worth filming too. Dated footage of a clean chase shows the paint stain was opened and checked, and that it was not termites.
The same low brick stem walls and tight crawls show up across this part of North Texas, and local outfits like Richardson Pest Control Pros deal with them all the time.
Before and after the treatment
Treatment clips run shorter than you’d think. I film the problem first: litter in a window well, a slab crack, a deck ledger in soil. Then I film enough work to show the spot was treated, soil pulled off the siding, debris by the truck. I finish from the same place so the after clip matches the before.
On termite work I want a wide shot that identifies the wall, a close shot of the tube, and a shot after a short section is broken and treated or a station is set nearby. I leave the rest of the tube up until the plan is set.
Bait station checks
Stations sit in the ground around the foundation, spaced the way the label and the layout require, with extras by downspouts and damp spots. A note that says checked does not prove the lid came off. On video I lift the cap, show the inside, and call the number if the lids are marked.
The clip should show a station seated flat, not tipped and full of mower dirt. It should show bait or monitor wood intact, chewed, or gone, and termites if they are in there. A quiet one still gets a few seconds so the date sticks to that spot.
Termite damage and mud tubes on camera
Shelter tubes are the sign people know and the sign bad photos ruin. They run from pencil-thin to about finger width, built of soil the color of the yard, stuck to concrete, up a pier, along a sill, or hidden behind siding.
Film a landmark first. Water heater, garage-door track, third pier from the hatch. Then fill the frame with the tube. Damage gets the same habit. Bubbled paint on a window stool. A hollow sound when the wood is tapped, with the tap audible. Galleries that follow the grain once a small spot is opened. If I cannot tell termite damage from a water stain or another insect gallery, I say that on the recording instead of guessing.
Timestamped records for sales, warranties, and insurance
A camera with the clock set right stores the date and time in the file. Texting and compressed uploads often strip that data, so I say the address and the date out loud and name the file with the street number, the date, and the area filmed.
In a sale, use the clip during the inspection window, not after closing. A buyer can point a repair request at the tube or the soft joist. A seller can show a dry old tube, or show the soil already pulled back. Both sides just look at the same wall.
For a warranty, footage at setup and at the yearly check shows the conditions those agreements usually hang on. Wood off the foundation, soil off the siding, leaks fixed, access open for the annual visit. If a retreat comes up later, you can watch the foundation as it was. Insurance is a separate conversation. I will not promise a claim gets paid. Carriers differ, and long-term insect damage is often treated differently from a sudden loss.
What good footage looks like
Good footage is boring on purpose. Steady camera, light on, location first, a couple of minutes long. Turn the phone sideways and lock exposure on the wall. Put a screwdriver in frame for scale. Name the files that day and send them with the invoice. Reshoot a dark shot before you leave.
How to ask for the footage and how to use it
Ask when you schedule the visit, not when the tech is in the truck. These are the pieces worth requesting.
- Film the foundation and anything touching the house, and say the address and date first.
- Run the inspection camera through the crawl or any void you open, and name the wall.
- Open every station on camera and send the original file plus a smaller copy.
Share the folder with a manager, a buyer’s agent, or whoever is pricing the repair. At renewal, watch this year next to last year.
Privacy and practical limits
I tell you before I hit record, and the lens stays on the work. Papers, family photos, a child’s room, and medicine on a counter get skipped or moved. Tenants should hear about the recording even if a manager ordered it. The mic picks up the next room, so if something private is on the clip I will delete it or reshoot without audio. Store interior files where you control who opens them. One hole does not clear a wall, so do not drill your own or crawl a tight space to film it.
