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The original was posted on /r/homestead by /u/durdgekp on 2025-06-05 02:12:33+00:00.

I was checking some uneven spots on my lawn after recent rains and thought it might just be water pooling. A friend lent me a phone-compatible thermal imager, so I scanned the area just out of curiosity.

One patch was noticeably warmer than the rest, and it wasn’t near any utilities. I dug a little and sure enough, it turned out to be a fire ant mound that had already developed pretty deep. They hadn’t surfaced yet, but were clearly active underground.

I never thought I’d be using thermal imaging for pest detection, but it definitely saved me from stepping into a real problem. Has anyone else run into fire ants like this?