Bug Club, The Bug Day Out, and in fact most of MRL’s insect/invertebrate focused program over the last 3 years are a result of three rounds of Engaging Science grants from the Queensland Government’s Office of Chief Scientist, as well as funding from Unity Water and the Sunshine Coast Council through their Environmental Levy Program.

2021-22 The first year our ‘Bugs to the Rescue’ program focused on raising the profile on the importance of invertebrates (insects and other small animals without backbones) in our environment through a series of interactive presentations and activities delivered to local schools and also a series of community field practicums. Through the year we explored the important roles that insects play in the ecosystem, how we can work with insects to enhance the health of our environment and also showcased people who work with or study insects (entomologists) to draw attention to interesting stem career pathways.  At the end of the year we wanted to celebrate all the amazing entomologists we had worked with, the students and community members who were involved in the program and celebrate the amazing world of insects and this became the first Bug Day Out!

2022-23: The following year we expanded our program to ‘Bugs to Rescue…and Rescuing Bugs’.  This year our program focused on highlighting not only the importance of invertebrates and what we can learn from them, but also demonstrating how we can help them by restoring and enhancing habitat.  We continued our interactive presentations and community field practicums and showcased ways that everyone could help their local invertebrates by planting native plants and creating invertebrate friendly/focused gardens.  This included the creation of a demonstration butterfly garden at MRL’s biocontrol facility. We also began our citizen science group, Bug Club, to foster a community of insect enthusiasts who enjoy getting in the field and collecting data on local invertebrates.  With such an ecologically rich ‘backyard’ to explore Bug Club has conducted numerous community field excursions to collect data and learn about invertebrate populations in a wide range of different habitat zones around the Sunshine coast.  After the success of the first Bug Day Out we decided to host another one showcasing the butterfly garden, the Bug Club, inspiring local entomologists and a range of interactive family fun activities to celebrate insects on the Sunshine Coast.

2023-24: The third year of funding ‘(Even More) Bugs to the Rescue…and Rescuing Bugs,’  allowed us to continue the previous two years of program and expand our Bug Club activities to include a collaborative citizen science backed study with an Entomologist to learn about key pollinators in the Mooloolah River National Park. this study was called The UFO Identification team- Native Bee Study. You can read the results of our study here.

This year also concluded with the biggest Bug Day Out so far with a huge array of interactive activities, an insect art exhibition, a presentation of our native bee study findings, and of course, our superstar entomologists!

Check out our Bug Club and Identifying UFO’s iNaturalist projects here!