The DNA Biodiversity Drive

We have been distributing kits to people around the country. If you'd like a kit, then we can organise this, just use the contact form (Contact).

Once you have a kit you can use it as soon as you like (we will happily give you more). The journey can be short or long - it's up to you - althoyugh we think that a journey of 20 minutes to 24 hours is best.

Just make sure that you tell us where you went on your drive (on the Enter Data page) - as well as the date and the time when you were driving. If we don't know this then we don't really learn anything about what animals, plants and microbes are where.

1. Put on a glove

The glove is to stop you getting soap on your hand - and keep your DNA out of the sample. You can throw the glove away.

2. 1st wash

Take the 1st WASH cloth out of the tube and give your number plate a quick wipe all over. The idea is to remove as much biological splatter as you can before your drive.

4. Put on a new glove

This new clean glove protects the sample from the enzymes that you have on your fingers that break down DNA. It also keeps your DNA out of the sample.

5. Get some baseline DNA before your drive

Take the sachet that contains a swab. Rip this open and swab down your number plate. Wiping the whole plate only takes a couple of seconds. Then put the swab into the white labelled 2ml tube. This tube contains a liquid that will preserve the DNA and some grit that will help us get DNA out of the swab in the lab.

Why swab before you drive

Wiping your plate should have cleaned most of the DNA off your number plate. However, we don't give you the chemicals that will destroy all the DNA because we don't want to damage you, your clothes or your car. This means that we want to know what DNA remains, so we get you to take a DNA sample for us before you go for a drive.

1. Put on a glove

The glove is to stop you getting soap on your hand - and keep your DNA off the car.

2. See any insects?

Knock any insects that you see stuck on the plate into the yellow pottle. We have some insect experts that can look at them and visually identify what they are. It also makes it more likely that we will discover the faint traces of other insects that have hit your number plate and bounced off (a whole insect tends to dominate the whole sample).

3. Final swab

Take the sachet that contains a swab. Rip this open and swab down your number plate. Then put the swab into the yellow lasbelled 2ml tube. This tube contains DNA preservative and some grit that will help us get nucleic acids out of the swab later.

1. Put on a glove

2. 1st wash

3. 2nd washes

4. Put on a new glove

5. Get some baseline DNA before your drive

Why swab before you drive

1. Put on a glove

2. See any insects?

3. Final swab