Wasps are often seen as the pesky visitors of summer, but they play an essential role in nature that’s truly worth celebrating! Join us for a family-friendly surveying session over two afternoons, where we’ll discover just how fascinating these insects are – far more than just a summer nuisance.
On Saturday 6th September, we'll be joined by Seirian Sumner, a local resident and inspiring and extremely knowledgeable wasp ecologist. Seirian runs the Big Wasp Survey, a nationtal citizen science project, which aims to understand more about social wasp. With Seirian leading the group, we’ll dive into the world of wasps, learning about their importance and helping build wasp traps for stage one of the wasp survey. This is the perfect session for children to get involved and learn all about social wasps.
On Saturday 13th September, we’ll check the traps and identify the different wasp species caught. Seirian will lead us through the steps to identify the wasps and help us gain a wider understanding of wasps and their importance. This session is a hands-on event and would be suitable for adults and children.
Please note that the wasps are killed in the traps so attendees will not be working with live wasps. The survey is timed so that the wasps are at the end of their life span, so although are killed as part of the survey, would soon die in the wild anyway. So, although their is an impact to this citizen science project, it is minimised as much as possible.
