On a recent walk to pre-school, my daughter picked up her first conker of the season and skipped in to show her friends this amazing treasure. But unfortunately, hers may be the last generation to have childhood memories of plentiful conker harvests.
A pest, the leaf miner moth, is attacking horse chestnut trees across Europe and could be in Ireland in a couple of years. The moth lays its eggs on horse chestnut leaves, then larvae hatch out and tunnel into the leaf's interior, digging into the plant's food reserves and creating discoloured spots on the leaf's surface.
Over two decades the tiny moth has spread across Europe from Macedonia, hitching a ride as leaves get caught on lorries, says Tony Kirkham, head of the arboretum at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England.
In 2002 it reached Wimbledon, and has since spread all over London, he says. The pest, combined with recent droughts in southern England, means the horse chestnut trees are under considerable stress, and this year's conkers are small and few: "Over time, maybe five years, I think it will probably start to kill some trees."
Efforts to control the leaf miner's spread include raking and burning infected leaves, but Kirkham believes what we really need is a cold winter to kill off the insect. In the meantime, the pest continues westward: "There's so much lorry movement it's inevitable it's going to reach [ Ireland] within the next two or three years."