Trap Monitoring Score Calculator

Spacing traps at exactly their attraction radius apart leaves gaps between the circular attraction zones, since circles don't tile a plane without overlap. The 1.7x multiplier is a standard hexagonal-packing coverage factor — it lets the attraction zones overlap just enough to cover the field with minimal wasted double-coverage, rather than leaving pockets the pheromone plume never reaches.

Yes, and that's the key case where the reading is meaningful. High coverage percentage confirms the traps are positioned across enough of the field to actually detect the pest wherever it's likely to be, so a below-threshold capture rate under that condition genuinely reflects low pressure. If coverage is low instead, a below-threshold reading could simply mean your traps happen to sit in an area the pest hasn't reached yet, not that pressure is actually low.

It first expresses your captures-per-trap-per-week figure as a percentage of your species-specific action threshold, then buckets that percentage into four tiers: under 25% of threshold is Low, 25-75% is Moderate, 75-150% is High, and above 150% is Very High. The 100% mark is where the threshold itself sits, so a Moderate-to-High reading means you're approaching or have reached the point where treatment is typically justified.

The underlying calculation sums each trap's circular attraction area and divides by total field area, which can mathematically exceed 100% once traps are dense enough that their coverage zones overlap significantly. Since a field can't be more than fully covered, the calculator caps the displayed percentage at 100% rather than reporting a number that implies redundant coverage as if it were extra ground gained.