Join the Bug Hunt to help scientists keep track of bees, ants, snails and all sorts of other bugs across Australia!
Our Work | Bug Hunt
Ever wondered what bugs are living in your garden or hanging out on a hike?
There are thousands of awesome native bugs to discover, as well as some non-native ones that we really want to find, to protect our communities from. When you take part in Bug Hunt you can satisfy your curiosity, be entertained, and learn along the way, and you don’t have to be an expert at all to identify your bugs!
After uploading your bug pics to the iNaturalist app, a clever photo identification algorithm and a community of experts and passionate bug-ologists (entomologists) will check out your uploads and identify what you’ve snapped – for FREE! Follow the below steps to take part.
We’re excited about the Bug Hunt and want you to get involved – make sure you register to hear the latest on what we find, as well as fun bug content and informative guides!
Bug Hunt will go live in 2023, please subscribe for updates.
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You can do this via the App Store or Google Play on your smartphone.
Do this within the iNaturalist app, in the ‘Projects’ tab.
You can use your smart-phones to take pictures of bugs, then upload them to the app using the ‘Observe’ tab. Write what type of bug you think it may be, or submit your photo and let the experts do the identifying.
Here are some of the bugs we’ll be focusing on:
Everyone loves seeing bees in their gardens, from honeybees pollinating our crops to Australian blue banded bees. However there are many invasive and damaging bee species, some of which have been found in Australia.
Feral bee species out-compete and displace our Australian bees, and spread weedy plants over Australian plants.
Invasive ants are bad news for Australia. Increasing global trade has led to the unintended transport of ants across the world.
Even in low numbers these ants hurt people, wildlife, agriculture and infrastructure, but once they build to super colony levels they can dominate large landscapes, killing, consuming or driving out everything in their path.
We are targeting the Yellow Crazy Ant, which is currently under eradication in Cairns and Townsville. This will trial the use of citizen science to detect new invasions of ants, monitor the extent of outbreaks, and measure the success of eradication activities.
While many people are unaware of the risks posed by exotic invasive snails, there are many species of snail that would cause significant damage to our environment and agriculture.
Over 500 plant species are at risk from exotic snail species including fruit and vegetables; nurseries and rice; our natural environment and human health.
The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. The Invasive Species Council supports voting ‘YES’ for a Voice to Parliament.
Dear Project Team,
[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.]
I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.
The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.
The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.
This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.
Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.
Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.
Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.
Dear Project Team,
[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.]
I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.
The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.
The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.
This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.
Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.
Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.
Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.
