Welcome to Conker Tree Science 2012

Welcome to Conker Tree Science 2012!

What can you do now?

1.  Take part in Mission: pest controllers (http://www.conkertreescience.org.uk/pestcontrolmission.html). You can collect infected leaves for this mission from 3-8 July inclusive.  Bag up the leaves so the tiny insects can't escape and after 2 weeks see what has emerged from the leaf.  Help us discover how many alien moths are being attacked by pest controlling wasps. Submit your results from 18-22 July inclusive.

2.  Take part in the Mission: alien moth survey (http://www.conkertreescience.org.uk/surveymission.html). Look out for conker trees, see if they show leaf mine damage and report your results via the website http://www.conkertreescience.org.uk/surveysubmitresults.html or the Leafwatch smartphone app (http://leafwatch.naturelocator.org/). Will the moth be confirmed further north than Newcastle this year? Will this year be worse than last year for the horse-chestnut trees?

3. Visit the project blog (http://conkertreescience.blogspot.co.uk) for all the up-to-date news. There you can see a summary of the results from last year. We’ll also be keeping this up-to-date with answers to your questions.

4. Get a sneak preview (http://conkertreescience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/natural-pest-contollers-not-just-wasps.html) of the new mission that we will be launching this in August.

We look forward to receiving your results to help us understand more about what is happening to our conker trees.

Best wishes

Michael Pocock & Darren Evans

P.S. Please forward this email to anyone who may want to know what is happening to conker trees.