Microbial degradation is the main way of eliminating pyrethroid residues from soil. This paper introduced recent achievements of isolating and identifying pyrethroid-degrading strains, cloning gene of pyrethroid-degrading enzyme and exploring the mechanism of microbial degradation, gave a general introduction of characteristic, reason and possible environmental response of stereoselective degradation of pyrethroid isomers in soil, analyzed emphatically factors like hydrophobicity of pesticide, adsorption by soil, heavy metal, soil nutrient, long-term fertilization and co-existing pesticide that affect microbial degradation of pyrethroids, and discussed the prospect for bioremediation with microbes.