The Top 5 Apps on iPhone for Identifying Bugs and Insects

Found a strange bug in your home or an insect in your garden? Use these iPhone apps to identify it in a flash.

Insects are most active in the hotter seasons of the year, and very many of them can find their way into your yard or home. While most insects are harmless, you may want to learn more about the critters that you so often see.

Luckily, there is a range of iPhone apps available that can help you to identify a bug instantly. Here are the best insect identifier apps to try out.

1. Picture Insect

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Picture Insect is perfect for identifying bugs and learning about them as you do so. With over 1,000 species of insect in its database and an identification accuracy rate of 95.28%, this app should give you confidence in identifying bugs.

When a bug has been identified, the app offers a ton of information on the species. The UI is easy to navigate and neatly organized, which leads to the amount of information feeling digestible rather than overwhelming.

Picture Insect is perfect for identifying a bug in your home or garden and then learning about them on the spot. Pairing this app with helpful gardening apps, such as Garden Tags, will ensure you keep your plants and flowers as free as possible from invasive bugs.

Download: Picture Insect (Free, subscription available)

2. Insect Identification

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Insect Identification is a simpler app than Picture insect that allows you to either take a photo directly or import photos from your camera roll of insects. The app will then try to match the photo to an insect from its database. While the app is fairly accurate with its identification, there is a notable lack of information surrounding the insect.

If you just want a barebones app that gives you an idea of what species the bug in your house is, this app is ideal for you.

Download: Insect Identifier (Free, subscription available)

3. Insect id: Bug Verifier

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This app is responsive, easy to navigate, and extremely helpful for identifying bugs and insects around the home. You can either take a photo directly in the app or import it from your camera roll. Once you've placed your image in, the app will use its database to recognize the species, displaying the accuracy of the image.

A short About section also appears, offering you information about the insect. Selecting More Info takes you to the Wikipedia page for the particular bug, offering you the choice between learning as little or as much as you want about it.

This app is very similar to tree identifying apps such as Nature ID, but focuses on bugs and critters.

Download: Insect id: Bug Verifier (Free, subscription available)

4. Insect identifier Bug Finder

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This app makes scanning bugs for identification simple and helps you to learn more about the bugs you see around your home and yard. You can scan a picture of a bug using the Scan button and taking a photo with your camera, or press the Add (+) button to import a picture from your camera roll.

Insects you scan will be added to your Collection Book, which you can access at any time. When scanning a new insect, a few cards of different insects will pop up, based on what the app thinks the insect is. The cards contain information and multiple pictures of the bug, and by pressing Wiki you'll be taken to the specific insect's Wikipedia page.

Download: Insect identifier Bug Finder (Free, subscription available)

5. Smart Identifier

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Smart Identifier is a comprehensive and well-populated app that allows you to identify plants as well as any insects you encounter. When taking a photo, you can select between Insect, Flower, Plant, or Animal, with the database matching your image to what it finds based on those filters.

You can also import images, which is handy for identifying insects you took a picture of prior to downloading the app. Once the photo has been scanned, the app offers you some related topics, which you can tap on to read more about. For instance, an image of a dog will give you information on the dog breed.

Download: Smart Identifier (Free, subscription available)

Identifying Insects Made Easy

Identifying the bugs that crop up in either your home or garden can be useful for knowing whether they can be left alone or whether they are pests that need to be dealt with. Luckily, these apps make it quick and simple to identify insects with your iPhone and learn about them while doing so.

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