The invention belongs to the technical field of electric power insulating equipment detection, and particularly relates to an insulator dirt detecting method and device. The method comprises the steps that the relational expression among the antenna temperature, the environment temperature, the atmosphere humidity, the equivalent salt density and the equivalent dust density is established; the antenna temperature, the environment temperature and the atmosphere humidity are detected and substituted into the relational expression; double circulation increasing with the iterative step being eta 1 is carried out on the equivalent salt density and the equivalent dust density, and the minimum mean square error between the antenna temperature and the antenna temperature output through formula iteration is calculated; precise double circulation iteration with the iterative step being eta 1 / 10 is carried out, and when the error is minimal, the final equivalent salt density and the final equivalent dust density are obtained. The device comprises a microwave radiometer, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a central processing unit, a memorizer, a display screen, operation buttons, a battery, a signal line and a power line. The insulator dirt degree is online detected in a non-contact mode, and the insulator dirt detecting method and device have the advantages of being high in precision, fast in detection, convenient to use and the like.