Aqua Bugs

Is your neighborhood stream safe for swimming and fishing? The beetles, insect larvae, snails, and other aquatic life hiding in your stream can tell you! We’ll show you how.

Category	Price	Seller	Device
Reference	Free	Izaak Walton League of America, Inc.	iPhone, iPad, iPod

The ID ME app helps solve bug ID mysteries with a few simple questions. Start with a bug’s legs, tail, or body shape. Clear directions paired with simple line drawings walk you through each choice. Like magic, the name of your bug will appear along with a gallery of photographs and brief description of its key features.

Got the wrong bug? Hit the Not My Bug button and the app immediately shows you the top five most likely alternatives. You can also choose List All at any time for an alphabetized list of all common macroinvertebrates (insects and crustaceans) found in freshwater streams.

For resources and information on how to turn these bugs into a water quality rating, click About Us for links to data forms and instructions, training videos, an online database, and more.

Features:
1. Created for beginning and intermediate water quality monitors. Also great for anglers.
2. Easy-to-use, step-by-step identification of the most common macroinvertebrates found in freshwater streams throughout the United States.
3. Accurate descriptions, line drawings, and photographs illustrate each aquatic insect and crustacean.
4. Simple, clear navigation.
5. Not My Bug feature to help with the most common mistakes in aquatic bug ID.
6. Free! The Izaak Walton League’s goal in providing this app is to make it easy to explore local streams and monitor water quality in your neighborhood.

Reviews

Helped me identify the bugs in my creek
Sean reynoldscs

I have a ton of sow bugs and I was trying to figure out what they were. Now I know thanks to this app.

Not very useful
Onchisorehead

This app only identifies to order. If the guy who said that he is trained in aquatic macroinvertebrates cannot identify one to order without this (or any) app was not very well trained.

Fantastic and Informative
Stream Monitor MD

This is exactly the app I was looking for to help with macroinvertebrate identification in the field. It has very clear questions and line drawings that walk you through the features of each bug and a wide variety of photos to illustrate the bugs once you make a final choice. I also like the 'not my bug' feature. If you make a mistake in the ID it helps you by giving some common mistaken identities so you don't have to go back to the beginning to try again.

Very Interesting
Giggadaddy28

Very cool app. Love the photos. Look forward to using this with my stream monitoring group.

Great identification app!
Water Quality Enthusiast

I have been trained in macroinvertebrate identification, and this app is a great resource! I can definitely see myself using it in the field as a quick and easy identification tool...it has great pictures and diagrams with clear explanations of each macroinvertebrate. The "not my bug" tool in this app is great too. It takes you to a list of bugs that are commonly mistaken for the bug selected, which is great so you don't have to start all over again. I recommend this app for both experienced stream monitors and newbies going out into a stream just to see what they can find!

Macroinvertebrate App
Water quality advocate

This is a really useful app for macroinvertebrate stream monitoring for all levels of expertise and it is easy to use. Thanks to the Izaak Walton League for creating it!

cool id app for bugs!
PureMama914

I love how easy it is to find the bugs you are looking for by identifiable traits. User friendly for adults and kids. Would be great for school science classes!

Fun day in the water
Socrates1515

Excellent candid photos of volunteers ("About") in their local streams convince me it's the fun way to spend a day with Nature. The app is easy to use and speeds accurate identification of dozens of critters in our lakes, streams and rivers.

Pictures are great!
JeanDWisconsin

I like the app, it’s very easy to use and I LOVE the real life pictures used. This could be very helpful to me streamside when I do my SOS project. Students and adults could download this app and have a handy reference as well. The only thing is, I was not sure how to exit the app at first; I got stuck in it and had to shut it down to reset my phone.

Good, but some hiccups for novices
B@ilee

This is a good app, I've used it several times. For some bugs it's quite straight forward, and the pictures really help. I do think there are some improvements that could be made. For example there is not an easy way to determine the difference between caddis fly larva and common net spinning caddis fly larva with this app. Also, I had a helgramite for sure, but couldn't get to it using the apps prompts. I knew what it was but couldn't get the app to get me there. But overall it's good, and useful. I look forward to the next version.