The purpose of the app is to address the concerns that the numbers of pollinating insects such as wild bees and flies are declining, but we need much more data to be able to track changes in abundance. You can help by doing a Flower-Insect Timed Count (FIT Count) which is designed to collect new data on the numbers of flower-visiting insects.
About Flower-Insect Timed Counts (FIT Counts):
FIT Counts are very simple, you watch a patch of flowers for 10 minutes and count how many insects visit. It is a very useful tool for individuals, community groups and others to measure change in their local biodiversity. If you’ve taken action as part of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, carrying out FIT Counts throughout the year and across future years will help track the impact of your actions on insect numbers and diversity.
- FIT Counts are open to everyone
- You can do as many 10-minute FIT Counts as you like between the 1st of April and the 30th of September
- Your location can be anywhere e.g., garden, farm, park, school, business site
- You don’t need to identify the insects to species level, but only to tally within broad groups e.g., bumblebee, butterflies & moths, wasp, beetle
- We are delighted that the new FIT Count app now makes it much easier to carry out the count and to upload the results to us in one go
See more information here.