Inexpensive metal detectors?

[vavet]

Someone here knows about metal detectors. I have a very particular use in mind.
my home has a conditioned crawl space, making termite inspections difficult and invasive. To reduce/avoid that, I’ve installed in-ground bait stations around the perimeter of the foundation so I can monitor for termite activity. The problem I have is locating them when it’s time to inspect for activity. Several of them are located in my mulch beds. I’m thinking I could tape a washer to the bottom of the lid and then use a metal detector to locate them. This makes the job much faster and less disruptive to my mulch.

amazon has detectors for less than $30. My pain tolerance is maybe $60 on this. Are any of these units going to be able to find the bait stations under a few inches of mulch or is this just a waste of money and an exercise in futility?
im not looking to get into the hobby to go beach combing for missing jewelry, find old civil war artifacts or anything else.

 

[Dodge]

Check Harbor Freight. Around $60

 

[Crabman]

I would think a cheap one would work, particularly if the bait stations are big enough to affix large fender washers or similar.

Good luck finding a solution.

I bought a cheap one to find some trailer keys I lost. I thought they were in a big pile of leaves, no luck, I had hung them up.

I did however find a Hotchkiss shell in my neighbor's yard looking for a well pipe!

 

[yatg]

This makes the job much faster and less disruptive to my mulch.

Have this one saved for later in my Amazon cart

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005A3L1/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Or you could put those little locator flags next to the traps, or anything else that would stick out above the mulch.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005A3L1/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Marsim]

From your description, a cheap one would work fine. A few inches under mulch is no big deal. Don't store the detector with the batteries in it. Look at Craigslist and Facebook marketplace for used ones (got my current one for $10). Big 5 used to have cheap ones too.