How to do pest scouting (IPM) on the farm

Pest scouting means going to the field, stopping at several points along the way and recording what you find at each stop — then comparing the field’s result with the action threshold to decide whether spraying is worth it. The work has two halves: a field half, which is walking and counting, and an office half, which is having registered in advance what is counted, how it is counted and at what number the farm takes action. Without the second half, the first returns scattered numbers that each person reads differently.

What IPM actually is

IPM stands for integrated pest management: instead of spraying on a calendar, you spray when the population justifies the cost of control. In Brazil, Embrapa (the Brazilian agricultural research corporation) adapted and spread soybean IPM (MIP-Soja) from the 1970s on, and that is where the practices that became routine come from — the beat sheet, counting per stop, decisions made by the numbers.

Two concepts underpin the method:

• Economic injury level is the density at which the damage equals the cost of controlling it. Reaching it is already too late.
• Action threshold is the lower number at which you act so you never get there. It’s the number the farm registers and that scouting compares against every day.

Step 1: define the routine before going to the field

Before any setup, the farm decides three things that belong to it, not to the software: which targets to scout in each crop, how often each field is visited and who does it. Size the team by area and interval: people who need to cover a lot of ground in a few days end up making few stops per field — and too few stops is what distorts results the most.

Step 2: register what will be scouted and how it is counted

In up.Monitora, setup starts with the class (the drawer: Caterpillars, Mites, Fungi, Broadleaf Weeds) and moves on to the pest, where you define what matters most: how the target is counted and how the counts from each stop become the field’s number.

Field counting methods, and what each one means:

Method	How it’s done	Typical use
Beat sheet	Plants are shaken over a sheet spread between two rows	The IPM classic in soybeans: stink bugs and caterpillars
Plant	A set number of plants is examined, recording how many were assessed	Share of the crop affected: foliar diseases, boll damage
Meter	Everything in one linear meter of row is counted	Weeds, soil pests and much of cotton
Assessment	Measurements that aren’t crop enemies: height, stand, nodes	Tracking plant development

Five caterpillars in one meter of row is not the same information as five caterpillars in a hundred plants examined. That’s why it pays to fix the method per target and per crop: the same pest counted per plant in one field and per meter in another produces two numbers that can’t be compared.

This is also where you decide whether the count is split by size — the instar, when the decision depends on the insect’s stage — or whether the scout picks a preset option (Low, Medium, High) instead of typing a number, which makes sense for visual disease assessment. The fields are described in the article on registering pests, weeds and diseases.

Step 3: set the action threshold — the part that’s yours

This is the only step nobody fills in for the farm. upCampo does not set action thresholds. The numbers come from the technical recommendation the farm already follows: research, cooperative, consultancy or the agronomist’s own history. The system just makes sure it is applied the same way in every field and by the whole team.

Each range is registered by crop, count type, size and growth stage range, with a name and a color: Low, Medium, High. Breaking it down by stage is the laborious part and what makes the method work — ten caterpillars in newly emerged cotton don’t carry the same weight as ten caterpillars on formed bolls. The stage used for comparison is the one entered when opening the stop.

When the decision is made for the group rather than the species — the caterpillar complex: three species, each below the threshold, that together justify spraying — you set up a pest group with its own threshold. For the critical range, you can turn on an alert email, sent without anyone having to open the dashboard.

Step 4: walk the field and record stop by stop

In the field, the scout opens the field in the app and stops along the way. At each stop, they first record the stop opening — the crop stage and plant phenology (height, nodes, stand; in cotton, squares, bolls and open bolls) — and then the pest count: method, how many plants were assessed, the pest, size and quantity. Coordinates, time, who did it and photos are saved along with it.

The app works without internet: it stores everything on the device and syncs when the signal comes back.

How many stops per field?

There is no fixed grid, no position marked on the map and no minimum number of stops. Where to stop and how often is up to the scout and the farm’s routine.

What matters is the arithmetic consequence: the total number of stops is the divisor of the averages. With three stops, a hot spot in a corner can go unnoticed or become the average for the whole field. And one stop entered wrong goes into the average for the entire field that day.

Step 5: read the field result

What the scout enters is the count at each stop; what the agronomist reads is the field result for the day, calculated according to that pest’s calculation method. The summary is closed per day and per field, combining all the scouts who went through it.

With 10 stops walked, the pest found at 4 of them and 20 individuals counted:

Calculation method	Math	Result	Answers
Simple sum	total, no division	20	how much showed up in the field
Average per stop	20 ÷ 10	2.0	the average pressure across the area
Average per occurrence	20 ÷ 4	5.0	where it’s present, how much there is
Preset value	stops that marked the option ÷ total × 100	%	how much of the field is in that condition

The gap between the two averages is the most common reason a number comes out below the threshold when the scout swears the pest is there: a concentrated hot spot gives a low average per stop and a high average per occurrence. Both are right; they answer different questions. There is also the IPM Standard, which changes with the survey type: for beat sheet and m², the average per stop; for linear meter, the value per meter; per plant, the percentage of plants attacked.

The result shows up on the dashboard, where pest × field intersect, highlighted in the color of the range it falls into. The map shows the stops collected, with coordinates and photos — the field itself is not colored by action threshold. The Scouting screen is where you check and correct what came in from the field.

Step 6: decide — and record the decision

With the number classified, the decision is one of three: spray, wait or scout again in two days. If the choice is to spray, scouting becomes the trigger for a work order — which links IPM to cost and inventory, the territory of up.Operações.

Step 7: track the trend through the season

A single reading tells you where to go today. The sequence tells you whether the spray worked, whether the pest came back and in which fields it always comes back. The history by field and by pest is what turns scouting into management — and what lets you revisit the action threshold next season.

What about pests you can’t count with a beat sheet?

Moths and other flying insects are monitored with traps: you install one in the field and check it periodically to count what was caught. You register the group (what it captures and the ranges that trigger an alert), install it with coordinates and season, and each visit becomes a collection.

A detail that looks small but isn’t: recording “nothing found” is as important as recording a catch — without it, the trend chart has a gap that looks like no pests when it’s actually no reading. The rules are in the Trap x Season article.

What upCampo doesn’t do

To be perfectly clear:

• It doesn’t identify pests from photos. The photo is tied to the field and date, as evidence — the scout identifies the target.
• It doesn’t work with satellite imagery or NDVI. The data comes from going to the field, stop by stop.
• It doesn’t set action thresholds. That’s the farm’s agronomic decision.
• It doesn’t set a sampling grid or require a minimum frequency. It records what was done, with date, scout and coordinates — and that’s what lets you check whether the area was covered.

The setup path, step by step, is in the pest scouting quick guide; contract terms are on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

How many stops do I need in each field?

As many as the scout thinks necessary: there’s no fixed grid and no minimum. Keep in mind that the total number of stops is the divisor of the averages — with few stops, one hot spot can become the average for the whole field.

What’s the difference between the action threshold and the economic injury level?

The economic injury level is the density at which the damage equals the cost of control. The action threshold is the lower number at which you act so you never get there.

Who sets the action threshold?

The farm, based on the technical recommendation it already follows — research, cooperative, consultancy or the agronomist’s own history. It is registered by crop, count type, size and growth stage range.

What’s the difference between “average per stop” and “average per occurrence”?

Average per stop divides the total by all stops walked, including clean ones, and gives the average pressure across the area. Average per occurrence divides only by the stops where the pest showed up: where it’s present, how much there is.

Do I need internet in the field to scout?

No. The app stores the stops on the device and syncs when the connection comes back. Several scouts can work on the same farm at the same time.

Does the system identify the pest from a photo?

No. Identification is up to the scout; the photo is saved along with the stop, the coordinates and the date.

I counted the pest, but the result shows no highlight. Why?

There’s no action threshold for that combination of crop, count type, size and growth stage. Without a registered range, the count is recorded but not classified.