News Release

July 16, 2020 - Soils are fantastic places to find insect specimens because of the relation between insects’ daily routines and the subsurface. The Soil Science Society of America’s (SSSA) July 15^th Soils Matter Blog explores the life of various insects and how they impact soils.

Blogger Beverly Alvarez Torres explains, “insects are part of the predator’s community that control the population of others. On the other hand, many of the terrestrial animals have an insectivorous diet granting a key role to insect’s populations as food source in the food chain.”

“At times, insect life on agricultural land can be harmful for crops,” says Alvarez Torres. “Some farms use pest biocontrol. Knowing the problem insect, farmers introduce an insect that eats the pest, and not the crop. This ecological service by insects is a way to control pests in a natural way at the same time preventing excessive application of pesticides to kill them.”

In Puerto Rico, Caculos pests are harmful to sugar cane, as the adults create tunnels to the host plant to have food during the day while they’re protected in the soil at night. Another pest, citrus root weevil, is a concern for citrus producers. The weevils bore holes in roots and stems, reducing crop yield.

Insects are beneficial for soil’s physical condition through their life cycles, and they play a role in the soil nutrients as well. To learn more about soil-dwelling insects, read the entire blog post: https://soilsmatter.wordpress.com/2020/07/15/what-type-of-insects-live-in-soil/

Follow SSSA on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SSSA.soils, Twitter at SSSA_Soils. SSSA has soils information on www.soils.org/discover-soils, for teachers at www.soils4teachers.org, and for students through 12^th grade, www.soils4kids.org.