Call function in another thread in Python Qt

I'm trying to create a program that checks the status of devices by sending them SNMP requests. The problem is that requests can take a long time and at this time the GUI just freezes. Here is my code:

class Widget(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        # Buttons and other stuff...

        self.globalTimer = QTimer()
        self.globalTimer.setInterval(1000)
        self.globalTimer.timeout.connect(self.check_devices)
        self.globalTimer.start()

    def check_devices(self):
        # Just sending requests...

How can I call this function in a separate thread? I tried to move the timer to a separate thread, but it didn't help.