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Pest Invaders competition by QuestaGame: learn, play, have fun and help protect your local environment.

The Pest Invaders competition for schools by QuestaGame is a fun and educational way to learn about the world of insects and their impact on our environment. Learn about the fascinating lives of bugs and help track down invasive species in your area.

Join the competition and become a part of a unique community that shares your passion for nature!

The competition is organised in collaboration with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Why insects are essential to our ecosystem:

  • Biodiversity - Insects play a vital role in our ecosystems by pollinating plants and flowers, which helps to maintain biodiversity. Without insects, many plant species and animals would not survive.

  • Natural pest control - Insects also act as natural pest control by preying on other insects that can cause damage to crops and other plants. This helps to reduce the need for harmful pesticides.


The invasive species problem


Invasive species are non-native organisms that have been introduced to a particular ecosystem and cause damage to the environment, economy, or human health. Insects like the Asian longhorned beetle and the spotted lanternfly are examples of invasive species that are causing serious damage in the US.

Images, from the left: Cyclochila virens by Quester ‘Lukeenright123’, Hycleus biundulatus by Quester ‘QuantumThili’, Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly Papilio aegeus by Quester ‘Strays’, Mylothris agathina by Quester ‘nhr’.

Citizen scientists play a crucial role in helping to track the spread of invasive species and monitoring human activity's impact on insect populations.

Participation in the competition. 

To participate in the Pest Invaders competition, simply download the QuestaGame app and follow the prompts. The game is self-explanatory. Join a school team and start searching for insects in your local area. Every time you find an invasive species, take a photo and submit it to the QG. Your findings will be added to a global database, and you can earn rewards for your efforts.

Rack up the most points by the end of the competition, and you could win some great prizes and earn bragging rights as the Pest Invaders champion!

Pest Invaders 2022 Winner 

All images courtesy of the Grant family.

Last year's competition winner, along with their family, received a free helicopter tour of some of the Great Barrier Reef. Congratulations to Blayd on winning the competition and to the sponsors and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fishers for organising the prize! The family seemed to have an amazing trip. To quote their email:

Spectacular! Amazing! Breathtaking! Blayd and his family would like to thank everyone involved in the organisation of such a magnificent Questagame prize. Blayd and his family recently experienced a Scenic Helicopter Flight over Green Island, Yarrabah, False Cape, Arlington Reef, and Vlasoff Sand Cay from Cairns. Our family got to see a family of Dugongs, turtles, a pod of dolphins, and the spectacular reef around Green Island. Our family would like to say a huge thank you for this amazing opportunity.

The benefits of participating in the Pest Invaders competition:

  • Learn about the world of insects. While participating in the competition you can discover new species and expand your knowledge of insect biology and behaviour.

  • Contribute to scientific research. You not only learn about biodiversity but your findings will be used by researchers to study insect ecosystems and develop conservation strategies. 

  • And finally, get rewards for your efforts. By submitting and identifying observations you earn gold, and depending on the current edition you can also win some awesome prizes! But most importantly you help protect our planet. 

Pest Invaders 2023 runs between 23 January and 26 June. There is still time to join the fun and compete with school teams worldwide. For more information visit https://www.pestinvaders.org/ or contact Gosia at gosia@earthgaurdians.life

Over 30 thousand citizen scientists make history in Great North American Fungi Quest

Users of 6 different citizen science apps submitted almost 150 thousand observations during the largest fungi bioblitz in North America, thanks to the BioSMART technology.

The BioSMART aggregation platform allows reporting from multiple apps. The technology, initiated by EarthGuardians.LIFE, provides event organisers and conservation projects worldwide with the ability to access data from a wide range of citizen science apps without the administrative overhead of sourcing and blending various datasets. 

The first edition of the Great North American Fungi Quest took place between 15 September and 15 October this year. The Fungi Quest participants had to photograph and upload their observations to one of the participating citizen science apps: QuestaGame, Mushroom Observer, iNaturalist, CitSci, NatureMaps, and Observation.org. 

The event, designed to develop a better understanding of mushrooms and friends (molds, yeasts, toadstools and more) across all 23 countries of North America was initiated by ThinkFungi in collaboration with Earth Guardians, who provided technological support.  

Aggregating results from multiple apps increases involvement and produces even more biodiversity data. By combining the activities of various citizen science apps, organisers aimed to encourage greater inclusion and the best possible results for science.

The initial goal to reach 50 000 sightings was achieved on day 8, far surpassing expectations. On the last day, the organisers recorded 148,214 observations, achieving 3 times the number of observations that were initially anticipated. Someone may ask - why do we need all this data? 

“By encouraging people to get out, take photos and upload their observations, we can map as many species as possible in as many regions as possible”, says Robert Courteau, founder of ThinkFungi.org. “There’s an extremely important reason to do this. To be listed as a threatened or endangered species, the criteria typically includes evidence that observations of the species have been made and documented, and that the species is diminishing. Since fungi are so irregular by nature, it requires a lot of people and time to properly observe and document this data.”

Of course, it’s not just the quantity that counts. The collected data helps real research and fungi conservation, and the QuestaGame players contributed to this outstanding result with some extraordinary finds. The rare ‘Pluteus aurantiorugosus - Flame Shield’ was captured in Ontario, Canada by QG player ‘Snailrocks’, who won The Best Find Award for their discovery (see the images below). A great find indeed of this endangered species, threatened mainly by habitat destruction.

“A similar challenge was held in the United Kingdom by the British Mycological Society (BMS)”, says Courteau. “One lucky participant observed a mushroom that the BMS had thought, for the last 50 years, to be extinct on the islands. That’s an amazing discovery!”

The participants were incentivised not only by the possibility of finding a rare species - 6 partners (Guardians of Earth, FreshCap, Grow Mushrooms Canada, Swallow Tail, North Spore and Mushroom Mountain) provided prizes for the participants. 

The Great North American Fungi Quest will be back next year, with more apps and more participants. Keep an eye on QG and ThinkFungi socials for more info coming in early 2023.

If you are interested in getting a more detailed recap of the event, visit the ThinkFungi website below: https://thinkfungi.org/fungiquest-2022recap/

See the QuestaGame results at https://questagame.com/north-american-fungi-quest and for more info head over to https://thinkfungi.org/fungiquest/ or contact gosia@earthguardians.life.

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