Which monitoring method is used to flush soil-dwelling pests to the surface for detection?

• A. Visually
• B. White paper test
• C. Coffee can flush
• D. Root sampling

Answer: (C)

Flushing soil-dwelling pests to the surface is best accomplished with the coffee can flush method. By burying an open coffee can flush with the soil surface and then irrigating or flooding the area, subterranean pests such as white grubs or mole crickets move upward toward moisture and escape, ending up in or near the can where they’re easy to observe or count. This makes it possible to detect and estimate pest presence in the root zone, something that’s hard to do by surface observation alone.

Other methods don’t actively pull hidden pests out of the soil. Visually inspecting the turf only finds what’s visible on top, not the underground population. A white paper test can reveal some pests that cross a white surface but doesn’t reliably flush those living deeper in the soil. Root sampling targets the roots themselves but may miss mobile or non-root-feeding pests and doesn’t provide a direct surface-view of the population. The coffee can flush specifically targets and brings soil-dwelling pests to the surface for detection.