Soil cultivation

Many insects live or hide near the soil surface where they find ideal temperature and humidity conditions. Plowing the soil will disturb these conditions as it causes the upper layers of the soil to dry. It will expose some larvae and pupae to the sun or to predators such as birds, while others may be buried so deep that they fail to emerge.

Cutworm attacks a seedling. Cutworm populations can be suppressed by plowing the soil.