Insects

We hope that you are not grossed out by the insects in Animal Crossing. Our mom has an intense fear of roaches, and she will not kill them in her house—she makes us do that part. Insects are very beneficial to the world, and these are only cartoon insects, so try to overcome your fear… okay, moving on.

Insects in Your House

If you leave your house for a few days, the roaches WILL move in! You cannot catch bugs in your house, so just run over them. You can place insects that you caught from outside in little cages just by dropping them inside.

Catching Insects

Every insect must be caught using a different strategy. We will attempt to explain a few of the strategies here.

Flying Insects

This include butterflies, dragonflies, and lightning bugs.

Beetles do fly when they get scared away, but it is almost impossible to catch them in the air. For flying insects, do your best to sneak up on them. You may find it helpful to aim for the little shadow on the ground, rather than the insect. Because the insect is above the ground, it creates an illusion of being further away than it really is. As far as mosquitoes go, the best way to notice them is the tiny little buzzing noise. You'll find mosquitoes in June through September in the evening. Watch out because they sneak up before you know it!

Insects in Trees

This includes bagworms and spiders. To find these insects, you must shake trees. If one drops down, get out your net immediately to catch it. Look out while shaking them. A beehive may drop from the tree and before you know it you've been swarmed and bitten! It'll take a little strategy to catch this one. Keep some medicine from Nook's on hand if you don't want to look like this all day.

Insects on Trees

This includes beetles. The trick to catching these insects is to go very slowly. If you run, you WILL scare them away.

Insect on the ground

This includes crickets and grasshoppers. Be stealthy when catching these insects.

Insects on the Water

This includes water striders. You must reach out over the pond with your net to catch these insects.

Insects on Flowers

This includes lady bugs and roaches. Be careful not to scare them away. This is a picture of one of the Admins on this site, miimario and his friend Ally.

Insects in the Ground

This includes mole crickets. You can hear these mole crickets humming, but you will NOT be able to find them. That’s because they are in the ground.  Find the source area of the sound, and dig a million holes.  The mole cricket will come running out of the ground.  Chase him!

Insects on Rotted Candy or Turnips

This includes ants and flies. If you leave candy on the ground, or rotted turnips, you will attract ants and flies (and possibly roaches). There is an unlimited supply of these insects. They keep reappearing, just like shells.

Insects on Animals

You will find fleas on animal villagers. Basically they will look like a little black dot swirling and jumping from the animal. There is a little bit of a trick to catch them, because if you try to use your net they will talk to you when you're facing them. Go behind them to catch a flea.

What to Do With Insects

You can donate them to the museum (try to do this when you discover a new species), sell them to Nook, trade them, display them in your house, etc. See our fishing article for more info.