The BUGBLITZ has finished up for this year !
On behalf of the Outdoor and Environmental Education Department of the Waterloo Region District School Board, thank-you for your participation in the first ever Backyard Bug Blitz! Your submission was one of over 720 insect and invertebrate lists that were compiled by students, teachers and families. Participants in the Bug Blitz saw over 100 species! What an amazing effort! We learned a lot and had a great time, we certainly hope you did as well.
We encourage you to continue with your enthusiasm for citizen science, and we hope that you have found a hobby that you can enjoy for the rest of your life.
As David Attenborough said, “It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.”
Thank-you.
Results:
The BIG numbers!
The Top Ten!
Overall:
Who: Over 720 Checklists were submitted by students, staff and families.
What: Over 100 species of insect and invertebrate were observed. The most frequently observed species were Ants!
Where: Most of our observations were in suburban backyards but we found bugs EVERYWHERE!
When: Everyone shared checklists all week long and we saw lots of great pictures on social media.
How: While most participants looked around with their eyes, lots also turned over logs, dug in the dirt and tried advanced techniques like using a drop cloth!
See the data on our Results page. If your a teacher and want to have the data for some fun math activities please contact one of the OEE staff.
Resources:
While the count is over for this year the resources are here for your use whenever you might need them. We will continue to check the ‘Share a bug’ feature, we are happy to help young entomologists at any time of year!
- Watch the ‘how-to’ videos.
- Read the instructions for participants.
- Get to know the bugs that live in Waterloo by visiting our Project on iNaturalist. Over 370 invertebrates can be found in Waterloo during the month of May, iNaturalist has them all!
- Take a picture of any bugs you find and share them with us using our ‘Share a bug‘ button Below. We will email you back with an identification!
- Try out iNaturalist, it is free and will help you identify what you have found using the camera on your device. If your not sure how to use iNaturalist check out these awesome tutorials.
- If you don’t want to (or are too young) to sign up for an iNaturalist account try out SEEK.
- And of course… Practice.
Here is a Checklist of the most common invertebrates that you can find in Waterloo in May. Find a printable version in our Print Resources page.
If you want help identifying a ‘bug’ please send us a photo by clicking our ‘Share a bug’ button below. We will get back to you with our ‘best guess’ as quickly as we can (probably 24 hours).
Thank you!