New publication on the automated evaluation of Von Törne bait strips – an important milestone for the SoilRob team

Automated evaluation of Bait-Lamina sticks to measure soil biological activity

Soil organisms such as earthworms, mites, or springtails play a key role in healthy soils. They break down organic material, support nutrient cycling, and improve soil structure. To measure their activity, the so-called Bait-Lamina test is often used: small plastic sticks (von Törne bait strips) are filled with a carbon-rich bait substrate and then inserted into the soil with the filled holes facing into the ground. After a few weeks, it is assessed how much bait has been consumed by soil organisms.

Until now, this assessment has usually been done manually—hole by hole. This is time-consuming and can be rated differently depending on the person.

Our approach

In this study, an automated method was developed that uses image analysis to detect and evaluate feeding activity on the Bait-Lamina sticks. The sticks were photographed and analyzed with a специально developed Python program. The software automatically detects the holes and calculates how much bait has been removed.

Key results

  • The automated method shows very good agreement with manual scoring.

  • More than 90% of the results were very close to the ratings made by human evaluators.

  • The evaluation became significantly more efficient, saving about 40% of working time.

  • Subjective differences between different evaluators are reduced.

  • The method is transparent, reproducible, and suitable for larger monitoring programs.

Practical relevance

The new image analysis enables standardized and objective assessment of soil fauna activity. Especially for larger trial series or monitoring projects, it reduces workload and improves comparability of results.

In the long term, this approach can help to capture soil biology more easily, quickly, and reliably—an important step toward sustainable agriculture and soil management.

The paper can be read here https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X25015250

And the code is openly available here
https://github.com/Adrija1/baitstick-analysis

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