The innovative tech start-up, Opening the Bug Catcher, launched the object you see before you in 2030. This object was designed as an aid for interspecies communication with insects. It emerged out of a successful pitch for seed-funding in the second year of the Government insect biodiversity funding grants in 2028. 

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Key questions driving Opening the Bug Catcher and their formation of this technology were: How can humans reconnect to nature? How can humans reconnect to the species that we share the earth with? How might humans reimagine farming and urban spaces? How can humans break down the regional and urban divide? The technology enabled humans to understand and communicate with insects to help answer some of these important questions.

 

The technology arose amidst a backdrop of pivotal social, environmental and political changes in Australia during the 2020s. At the start of the decade, the Australian bushfires of 2019/2020 caused devastating impacts to Australia’s biodiversity. While koala’s and other iconic species dominated media attention, the full effects of the impacts on insect populations were not fully appreciated until 2025, with the advancement of monitoring technologies, and the groundbreaking report and accompanying VR documentary—“The economic risks of insect extinction in Australia.” In this report and VR documentary leading Australian scientists at CSIRO urged the Australian government and businesses to act to conserve insect diversity to avoid catastrophic collapse of ecosystems by 2050. In response, the Australian Government established a new funding body to address this pressing issue of insect biodiversity, which provided the initial funding for Opening the Bug Catcher to launch this object. 

 

The timing of Opening the Bug Catcher technology aligned with the progressive global Rights of Nature movements, led by Indigenous communities across the world. These movements led to extensive legislation changes in the late 2020s that increased protection for ecosystems. The technology allowed for new evidence and witnesses to be brought into court to fight against Government and corporate-led ecocide to ensure justice for insects and the ecosystems they are part of.