Soil Insect Score

Recording a soil insect score in the Sectormentor app

The Soil Insect Score is a measure of the presence of potentially damaging insects in your soil.

This is a test which you need to adapt to your context! The scoring lists some example insect species which may not be relevant to your soil or environment, so feel free to use these loosely as examples and score your soil based on your own knowledge of insect pressure and damage in your area.

You can do this test alongside other spade tests, such as the earthworm count.

  • What to record?

    A score of 0-2 where:

      • 0: Very poor | E.G 3+ soil caterpillars, wireworms, leatherjackets, 4+ cicada, 14+ root weevils / grass grubs, or 40%+ cover of pasture mealy bug.

      • 0.5: Poor | E.G 2 caterpillars, wireworms, leatherjackets, 3 cicada, 11-14 root weevils / grass grubs, or 30-40% cover of pasture mealy bug.

      • 1: Moderate | E.G 1 wireworm, leatherjacket, caterpillar, 1-3 cicada, 5-10 root weevils / grass grubs, or 10-30% soil cover of mealy bugs.

      • 1.5: Good | Minimal insect numbers, below damaging thresholds.

      • 2: Very good | No damaging insects spotted

  • Equipment

    • Spade

    • A tray or box to put soil into

How to do the test

1. Dig a 20cm spadeful of soil at your sample location (this can be done with other spade tests). It may be useful to put the soil in a box or tray to make it easier to look through.

2. Look through the soil, pulling it apart with your hands, counting and recording photos of the insect pests spotted in your spadeful of soil.

3. Record the numbers of insects found in the notes and score your sample in Sectormentor based on the scale above.

4. Put the soil you dug up back down the hole once you’ve finished!


Don’t understand why to do the Regen Indicators?

Nicole Masters explains in this video guide.

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