Could Your Smart Home Help Catch Roaches and Pests? - CNET

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Smart home sensors don't just help keep you safe -- with the right tricks they can spot pest activity and entrances, too.

Smart devices can spot roaches and other bugs, but there are a few caveats.

Nothing threatens home peace of mind quite like little pests -- but your smart home devices may be able to provide answers, including where roaches or mice are coming from. In addition to monitoring temperatures or listening for breaking glass, sensors can also pick up bugs and other activity.

If you've got questions about how this works or if pests really could be triggering your home security system, we've got all the answers you need below. Find out what tricks can help you beat the bugs.

Yes. Most smart home motion sensors use PIR, or passive infrared technology, that detects nearby infrared light, letting them detect people and objects. Since these sensors don't need to create active infrared light themselves, they excel at saving battery life, but they're sensitive enough to trigger from nearby roaches -- especially if a cockroach crawls directly across the sensor.

Since home sensors typically get placed beside doorways, cabinets and windowsills, this happens often if roaches are present. Plus, cockroaches may be attracted to the heat signatures some sensors give off.

Sensors like these and the more advanced motion detectors found in home security cams can also detect bats, mice, raccoons, squirrels, termites and a whole bunch of other pests. Roaches are just well-positioned to trigger indoor sensors, especially in the middle of the night.

Depending on how your home security system is set up, they could. Cockroaches climbing around an armed system could trigger it and send you an alert. Most home security systems won't directly contact police and give you a false alarm fine. Monitoring companies may contact you with some concerns, they're not going to send in emergency responders for a roach.

There have been cases where scared homeowners have called police because their system triggered while they were away, only for police to discover that it was a cockroach creating the alert. That's why it's useful to pair a security system with a smart camera so you can peek through the live view if you get an alert and see if there's really an intruder.

It's possible, but it might take some work. You would need compact sensors that could easily fit in these dark spaces and careful positioning to detect motion from roaches scurrying across the floor. It's more likely to work well with bigger pests like mice. For example, here's a whole story of a homeowner who positioned sensors in different locations to track how mice were entering the kitchen and uncovered all access points, including how they were squeezing under the doors.

Ecobee's sensors skip the need for a hub or keypad.

It's not likely. In our tests, we've found home security cameras tend to ignore small motions so they won't get triggered by swaying leaves, etc. Cockroaches and other bugs are just too small for the camera's sensors to activate. You could try placing a camera on the floor and using it in conjunction with a PIR motion sensor to check out the live view for roach activity. In these cases, the night vision on modern cameras could be an asset.

You have several options. First, we suggest bumping the adhesive sensors several inches higher, which is still enough to tag humans (or pets) but makes it less likely any roaches will get close.

If that doesn't work, look in your app settings to see if you can disarm certain sensors for the night or create schedules where sensors are allowed to activate only at certain times. There's usually a way to fix your problem. If issues persist, you can just silence notifications from your smart home app at night.

Catching roaches with sensors may take careful placement, but it can happen -- even by accident.

They can't trigger smoke detector sensors, but they can cause related problems. If bugs find their way into smoke detector wiring, they could trigger false alarms. It's been known to happen before, and it's a sign to call a pest control company ASAP.

Not effectively. Some suggest connecting a strobe light to a motion sensor or using a sensor with a built-in flashing light, but that's not a guaranteed deterrent, especially for pests beyond light-averse roaches. Get rid of pests by sealing even the tiniest access points, removing food sources and contacting experts if necessary.

If they start crawling around in the wiring, they can cause damage. Homeowners have discovered roaches making a mess behind keypads, security hubs and even inside Wi-Fi routers.

Don't use home automation to try to get rid of roaches -- call in an exterminator instead.

In some cases, maybe. Certain pest control companies set up their own sensor systems to detect larger pests like rats as part of a pest management plan. Using these sensors for pests as small as cockroaches is unusual, although some pest control companies may try using thermal imaging and other tricks to see where large groups of roaches are hiding.

Along with finding ways to deal with insects, stop by our guides on how to install security cameras the right way, nontoxic sprays you can use to deter pests and houseplants that can help ward away the bugs.