Objective  To overcome the shortcomings of time-consuming, labor-intensive and inaccurate conventional data collection of pest monitoring at vegetable fields, a system utilizing the internet of things technology was developed and tested.

  Method  By coupling the use of sex pheromone to trap pests with the application of internet of things, a means to automatically count target pests in the field was designed. A pheromonal lure combined with a high voltage power grid was installed in vegetable fields to trap and kill pests for accurate insect counting. Infrared sensors were used to detect the presence of pests, and the collected data transmitted through a 4G network. Utilizing the .net platform, pest monitoring management website and APP, WeChat official digital plant protection account, and other supporting software were developed for easy access by users to browse and query data remotely with computer, mobile phone, WeChat connection or other terminals. One of the major pests infesting vegetables, Spodoptera litura (Fabricius), was targeted in the experiments held at the vegetable fields in Tong'an, Xiamen and Youxi, Sanming.

  Result  The insect trapping effects were 276.14% in Tong'an and 162.60% in Youxi. The counting accuracy of the system were 93.52% in Tong'an and 81.59% in Youxi. Both the trapping rate and counting accuracy delivered by the system in the tests were considered acceptable.

  Conclusion  The newly designed intelligent pests monitoring system automatically and accurately monitored the pests in the vegetable fields. It could be used to generate information for infestation forecasting.