Insects

The Big Butterfly Count
Type: Survey
Location: UK wide
Season/duration: 18th July - 10th August 2025 (no 2026 dates yet)
Time needed: 15 minutes
Experience needed: none, butterfly guides available to download
Description: Spend 15 minutes in your garden or any green space and record the butterflies you see (even no butterflies is useful data!). You can submit as many counts as you like for the duration of the survey.

Pollinator Monitoring Scheme
Type: Survey
Location: UK wide
Season/duration: 1st April - 30th September (2026 likely the same dates)
Time needed: 10mins
Experience needed: none, only basic insect ID needed
Description: To do a Flower-Insect Timed count or FIT count, simply choose a flower (ideally one of the chosen 14 target flowers, which includes dandelions, buttercups, white clover and lavender), watch your flower for 10 minutes and count how many insects visit it within that time. You only need to record the species group of the insects you see not the exact species, so simply noting "bee" or "butterfly" is fine. The most helpful surveys are ones where multiple flowers in the same area are surveyed or ones where multiple surveys are conducted in the same location (as precise as possible) throughout the 6 months the project runs. You can upload your survey results on the FIT count app or through the form on the website. Four 1km square surveys are also conducted each year, one in May, June, July and August. If you are interested check the map on the website for unadopted squares. Note that for these surveys you should be comfortable using pan traps.

Garden Butterfly Survey
Type: Survey
Location: UK wide
Season/duration: all year
Time needed: no time restrictions
Experience needed: none, ID guides available
Description: Register your garden for the count and record the butterflies that visit your garden. The survey wants to record what butterflies visit your garden throughout the year, not just summer, be ready to log butterflies regularly.

BeeWalk
Type: Survey
Location: Scotland, Wales and England
Season/duration: all year, surveys monthly
Time needed: a few hours a month
Experience needed: confidently identify types of bees (guides and chances to learn on the website)
Description: Choose a 1-2km route and walk it once a month, record what types of bees you see. The information collected is important for monitoring how bees are adapting to climate change and changing land use.
Survey equivalent in Ireland and Northern Ireland here!

Mosquito Scotland
Type: Record a sighting
Location: Scotland
Description: Most people think we only have midges in Scotland but we have mosquitos too! Mosquitos in Scotland are very under researched, but you can help monitor them. If you spot a mosquito try to get a photo and note down as precise a location as possible.

National Moth Recording Scheme
Type: record sightings/conduct your own survey
Location: UK wide
Season/duration: all year
Time needed: no time restrictions
Experience needed: can identify types of moths, ID guides
Description: Wether you are recording a singular sighting or setting up your own (butterfly conservation approved) moth trap and recording what you find, every bit of data collected is important. The scheme uses iRecord to colect your findings, or you can report them to your county moth recorder.

Asian Hornet Watch
Type: Record a sighting
Location: UK wide
Description: On this website you can learn how to identify the invasive Yellow-Legged Asian Hornet. If you spot one or a nest of them, report it using the app or online form.

Bug Life also run many surveys across the country that you can help them with. I'd like to highlight the Scottish Oil Beetle Hunt, a survey monitoring flatworms aka PotWatch and the Blue Ground Beetle Hunt.