Pick a little bug, color it, then press "Set free in the garden" — it starts flying instantly and stays as long as you keep the page open.
Our garden ·
🎨 Color a bug and press "Set free in the garden"!
Pick & color
Brush size
How it works
Choose one of six garden friends, then paint inside the outline with the brush — colors never spill outside the lines, so it is great for young kids. "Base color" fills the whole body underneath what you already painted, and the eraser turns areas back to white. When you press "Set free in the garden", your bug takes off and moves the way its species does: butterflies flutter, bees and dragonflies zip around, ladybugs cruise slowly, stag beetles buzz along low and heavy, and snails crawl through the grass while flower petals drift by. Your own bugs never disappear while the page is open; the background is filled with recent drawings from other visitors around the world, which rotate over time. When you leave the page, your latest drawings are sent to the garden so other visitors can meet them too.
Six garden insects worth a closer look
Butterfly wings are covered in tiny overlapping scales, and in many species the blue is not pigment at all — it is produced by the structure of the scales bending light, which is why a blue morpho changes shade as it turns. Ladybugs advertise with red and black because they taste unpleasant, and the number of spots identifies the species rather than the age. Bees wear the same warning colours for the same reason.
Dragonflies are among the oldest flying animals, with ancestors in the fossil record long before the dinosaurs, and some had wingspans wider than an arm. Stag beetles get their name from the male's oversized jaws, used for wrestling rivals rather than biting. Snails are not insects at all — they are molluscs, closer to an octopus than to a bee, and their shells grow in a spiral that widens as the animal does.
Colouring small subjects
Butterfly wings are symmetrical. Colouring one side and copying it to the other looks deliberate in a way random colours do not.
Keep the bee's stripes alternating and high-contrast. That pattern is the whole recognisability of the shape.
Give the dragonfly a pale, translucent wing colour. Solid wings make it look like a different insect.
The snail's shell suits a spiral of two alternating colours, which follows how the shell actually grew.
Use a small brush for the ladybug's spots and a large one for its body. Switching size is faster than working carefully at one setting.
How each one moves in the garden
Released into the garden, each insect travels the way its real counterpart does. Butterflies flutter on an irregular, unpredictable path — real ones fly that way to make themselves hard for birds to catch. Bees and dragonflies move fast and directly, hovering and then darting. The stag beetle and the ladybug crawl along the ground, and the snail moves slowest of all, exactly as it should.
Everything you set free stays in the garden while the page is open, so it fills as you colour more. Nothing is uploaded anywhere; closing the tab clears the garden, so save any picture you want to keep first.
Yes. While you are on the page, your bugs fly only in your own garden. When you leave the page, your latest drawings are uploaded and appear as background flyers in other visitors' gardens. No name or personal information is attached — only the picture itself.
How long do background bugs stay?
Background bugs from other visitors rotate every few minutes so the garden always feels fresh. Your own bugs are different: they never expire while the page stays open.
Is this safe for kids?
Yes — there is no free drawing, no text, no chat and no user names. Children can only color inside fixed bug outlines, so nothing inappropriate can be created or shared.
Can I save my bug as an image?
Yes — press "Save picture" to download your colored bug as a PNG image with a transparent-friendly white body, ready for printing or sharing.
How many legs does an insect have?
Adult insects always have six legs — that covers the butterfly, bee, ladybug, dragonfly and stag beetle in this garden. Spiders have eight legs, so they are arachnids rather than insects, and the snail is not an insect at all: it is a mollusk that glides along on one muscular foot.
Why are ladybugs red with black spots?
Those bold colors are a warning sign. Ladybugs taste bitter to birds, and their bright red-and-black pattern advertises it — a defense known as warning coloration, which many toxic or foul-tasting animals share. Not all ladybugs match the classic look, though: some species come in orange or yellow with varying numbers of spots.