Soil Insect Score

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

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

The Soil Insect Score is included for benchmarking and analysis in the Soilmentor Regen Platform.

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

What to record?
A score of 0-2 where:
- 0 = Very poor
  E.g. 3+ soil caterpillars, wireworms, leatherjackets, or mole crickets, 4+ cicada, 14+ root weevils / grass grubs, or 40%+ soil cover of pasture mealy bug.
- 0.5 = Poor
  E.g. 2 soil caterpillars, wireworms, leatherjackets, or mole crickets, 3 cicada, 11-14 root weevils / grass grubs, or 30-40% soil cover of pasture mealy bug.
- 1 = Moderate
  E.g. 1 wireworm, leatherjacket, mole cricket, soil caterpillar, 1-3 cicada, 5-10 root weevils / grass grubs, or 10-30% soil cover of mealy bugs.
- 1.5 = Good
  E.g. Minimal insect numbers, below damaging thresholds.
- 2 = Very good
  E.g. No damaging insects spotted in the soil
Equipment
- Spade
- A tray or box to put your 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 Soilmentor based on the scale above.

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

Watch the video below to see the soil insect score method in action!

Soilmentor Pricing

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