Insects make Arlo motion detection useless for me

[TheBigGExpress]

This is outdoors, of course, & during the day.

Wasps & flies seem to be really attracted to Arlo cameras.

I get a motion event every ~4 minutes, all day long!

I now have thousands of recordings of wasps & flies crawling on the camera.

Lowering the sensitivity does not help.

Anyone got a solution for this?

After trying other cameras, I like most everything about Arlo, but this issue makes them mostly useless.

Thanks.

[jguerdat]

About all I can think of is a different location and/or trying to figure out where the insects are coming from and why so eliminating nests and/or food sources can be attempted.  Any motion detection system would be prone to the same issue.

[TheBigGExpress]

Insects come from the Earth, same as us.

You would have me eliminate all the flies ?!?

I have other outdoor cameras, with both PIR motion detection & video motion detection.

None of them have this problem.

[jguerdat]

You have to try various things to make it better.  Adjust sensitivity.  Change location. Determine if it's actually insects triggering the detection.

The only insects I have triggering my cameras are spiders crawling over the sensor.

[TheBigGExpress]

Please read.

[mikestjames]

I think there is something about the face of the Arlo cams being black which look to Yellow Jackets like an opening for a good nest location, They seem to be trying to land on the face preparatory to building a nest. I don't have a solution either. I am going to remove one outdoor camera and set the other one to be active at night only, when Yellow Jackets don't fly. I've tried recording the area from inside the house through a window, but the motion detection doesn't work through the window...too many glass reflections, I guess. Sorry I don't have an answer. Yellow Jackets are very active in my location for three months of summer.

[TomMac]

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mikestjames wrote:

I think there is something about the face of the Arlo cams being black which look to Yellow Jackets like an opening for a good nest location, They seem to be trying to land on the face preparatory to building a nest. I don't have a solution either. I am going to remove one outdoor camera and set the other one to be active at night only, when Yellow Jackets don't fly. I've tried recording the area from inside the house through a window, but the motion detection doesn't work through the window...too many glass reflections, I guess. Sorry I don't have an answer. Yellow Jackets are very active in my location for three months of summer.

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For what it's worth...the Q cams work fine thru glass as they are pixel base motion detect ( not pir ).

Just can't use the night vision as that reflects back.

[mikestjames]

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TomMac wrote:

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mikestjames wrote:

I think there is something about the face of the Arlo cams being black which look to Yellow Jackets like an opening for a good nest location, They seem to be trying to land on the face preparatory to building a nest. I don't have a solution either. I am going to remove one outdoor camera and set the other one to be active at night only, when Yellow Jackets don't fly. I've tried recording the area from inside the house through a window, but the motion detection doesn't work through the window...too many glass reflections, I guess. Sorry I don't have an answer. Yellow Jackets are very active in my location for three months of summer.

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For what it's worth...the Q cams work fine thru glass as they are pixel base motion detect ( not pir ).

Just can't use the night vision as that reflects back.

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Thanks, TomMac. If I decide it's that important to me, i'll consider the Q cams with inexpensive outdoor-mounted 800-850nm LED IR emitters in lieu of camera ir emmitters, which are weak anyway. Thanks foir the information and the idea.

[PaulOckenden]

Why not put some insect repellant near the camera? You could even attach some self-adhesive felt pads and soak them in the stuff.

[mikestjames]

Original thinking, anyway.

But Yellow Jackets are highly aggressive, not so easily deterred. The normal stuff (DEET containing repellants) work fine for mosquitoes, but Yellow Jackets are like Honey Badger...they don't giva a ****. I've got a couple of YJ traps out there; we fill them up and have to empty them a couple of times each summer. They just keep coming. If YJs weighed 50lbs, humans would go extinct soon enough. Pixel-based motion detection would be nice, so the camera could be used through windows, but that would require full-time activity on the camera, which isn't possible with a battery device. I might have to go with the Q-cams inside the windows, and buy a couple of cheap 800-850nm LED IR illuminator to light the view area at night. Netgear should sell such illuminators; one series in 800-850nm and another in 940nm for people who object to deing able to see the red emitters.

Thanks for the suggestion!

[paulmiller]

I have the same issue my outdoor camera. If it gets too bad, I shut it off.

[Trag]

I have same problem with all 4 of my arlo pro cameras. Its like bugs are attracted to Arlo Pro. I have tried spraying around camera with peppermint/spearment. Works for a while. I did not have this issue with my arlo wireless or my Vuezone cameras. 

[langrock]

Same here. Both outdoor locations attract yellow jackets like crazy despite there being YJ traps nearby. At some point, there were 5-6 of those just hanging out on the front face. I might try cut out something from a piece of white paper and attach it to the front to see if that helps. It's super annoying and reduces the battery life to get notifications every couple of minutes.

[Asiavik]

Glad to see I am not the only one seeing this. For us it is Mud Wasps. Will try some peppermint spray