When will the moth get to Ireland?

Across the Irish Sea they are aware of the risks posed to their horse-chestnut trees, according to an article in the Irish Times by the naturalist Michael Viney.

Whenever it arrives, it will almost certainly come across in someone's car, crossing on the ferry. My guess would be that it will be first found in a town near a port in south of the island (maybe Cork or Dublin) in about 5 years' time. It could easily come from someone in a town in England or Wales who was packing their car boot under a horse-chestnut tree and some of the moths got in the boot but by mistake, survived the journey and they escaped when the car was unloaded.

Stephen Fry tweets

Stephen Fry likes our app! He tweeted today inviting people to join in. 

 

Join with the thousands of others and take part in the Mission: alien moth survey with the Leaf Watch app or via the website.

BBC Midlands Today

Today I filmed in Cheltenham with the BBC Midlands science correspondent David Gregory, who was really fascinated with the potential of the LeafWatch app to record the damage caused to our horse-chestnut trees.

David Gregory also blogged about the app.

Climbing higher in the charts

Our app has climbed in the iTunes charts. It is now at number 3 in the iTunes Education Free app chart.

Do some proper science on your telephone…

Eurodroid, an app review site, posted a very favourable review on the LeafWatch app, describing it as a "rather excellent niche Android app".

They then go on to describe the "deadly conker-eating moths that are gradually eating away at the UK’s stock of horse-chestnut trees". Well, that's a bit of exaggeration, but the right sort of idea!

Guardian article

Conker Tree Science was featured in the Guardian today.

Press release

We have just issued the latest press release through the University of Bristol, promoting the LeafWatch app:

Nationwide mission to save conkers from alien invaders gets underway.