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Friday saw myself and Ben Clunie take a group of final year ÎÞÂ붯»­ BSc (Hons) Zoology with Entomology students to Royal Horticultural Society Wisley to visit their Plant Health Team and science facilities at the Hilltop building.

This trip, a part of my Invertebrate Pests and Beneficials module, aims to showcase potential career opportunities while also learning about the incredible work that the society does to promote garden biodiversity.

A large component of the Plant Health Team’s work involves responding to member queries on garden invertebrates (and vertebrates) with a view to providing advice on sustainable pest management along with knowledge on beneficial organisms.

With approximately 20,000 plant health queries per year, it is no small undertaking! Many of these queries can be relatively routine, but they do occasionally identify new insect species for the UK and are used to inform research projects carried by the society science teams - helping to further improve their service for members.

Thank you to Hayley Jones, Josie Stuart and Andrew Salisbury for your hospitality and generosity. The students really valued you taking the time to answer their questions and it was fascinating to hear about the various career paths that you and your colleagues have taken! I am certain that you will have inspired them to consider applied entomology as being more than about pest management.

Thanks are also due to the students, who braved a 06:00 start and M25 traffic, for being such great ambassadors for the University but also entomology. A great day!