Bugs in My Backyard Week 2026

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Bugs in My Backyard Week invites people across the country to step outside, look closely and help create Australia’s snapshot of bugs.

In 2025 the Society gave its Gold Award for Nature to Bug Hunt, an ambitious citizen-science initiative led by the Invasive Species Council in partnership with Invertebrates Australia (winners of this year’s Silver Award for their Christmas Beetle Monitoring Network).

Bug Hunt has grown from a deceptively simple idea: enlist Australians everywhere to help scientists build a better picture of the extraordinary invertebrate life around us and, at the same time, strengthen our ability to detect invasive species before they become a bigger problem.

Last year showed just what collective curiosity can achieve. In 2025, more than 5000 people contributed over 40,000 observations, documenting thousands of native species across Australia. Among them were threatened species including the Kaputar pink slug, the Eltham copper butterfly and the Bogong moth.

Each record uploaded to iNaturalist adds to our knowledge of Australia’s native invertebrates and helps scientists recognise unusual or potentially invasive species. In a country with an immense diversity of insects, spiders, snails, worms and other invertebrates, much of it poorly documented, thousands of people all looking at once can provide a powerful early-warning network. This November, the aim is to make that snapshot even bigger.

Anyone can participate. Head into your own backyard, local park, school grounds or favourite bushwalking destination between 16–22 November. Photograph any insects, spiders and other invertebrates you find, and upload your observations to iNaturalist. You don’t even need to know what you’ve found, because experts and members of the Bug Hunt community can help with identification. Schools, libraries and community groups can also get involved; education resources, community Bug Hunts, library displays, competitions and activities are available to encourage the next generation of bug detectives.

The Society’s Awards for Nature exist to give promising conservation ideas the support they need to grow.

So…

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