The guy I started this morning is already up over thirty collectibles. He has almost all the leaves and twigs, including three rare ones and almost all the coins as well. I haven't even gotten him married yet, as I'm waiting for a same career, but he's nearly finished the collectibles.

My little family that I started 30 hours ago now has 35 of 48 collectibles, which is by far the best they've ever done. They've got all but one rare coin (the red one with the square hole) and all but one rare nuts and twigs (the shamrock). They've also got all two rare picture pieces and one uncommon bug.

Continuing on the theory of disturbing the bushes causing collectibles to appear, I've been working with my new little family for 54 hours now. I have not played 54 hours straight, but they've been in existence for 54 hours. I played for about 1 1/2 hours when I first started them, and I've been checking in several times a day since. When I first started, I was trying to hold out for a perfect match, so all I had was one little guy. I didn't have the money for a pet, so I've been casting about for other ways to disturb the bushes and it dawned on me: THAT IS WHAT THE RED RUBBER BALL IS FOR! So I have been beating the heck out of the shrubbery with that darned ball. I've been getting collectibles quicker than I've ever done before. I got a cat as quickly as I could, and kept it chased into the bushes. When I finally got him married (I gave up on the perfect match) and had kids, I started praising the kids for all the things I used to scold them for. I've been being the good parent and praising them for studying and doing chores and scolding them for poking the plants, digging in the yard and wasting time looking for bugs. Then it dawned on me that when they do those things, those are the behaviors that would knock down leaves and nuts, scare out bugs and turn out artifacts in real life. I've been beating those poor bushes so much today with pets, kids and the rubber ball that in real life they'd have nothing green left on that lot. However, I've got 40 out of 48 collectibles in 54 hours. I've got the whole picture, which I don't think I've ever had before. I've got all but one coin. I've got all but one nuts and twigs (I misspoke yesterday, I was missing the shamrock and the pine cone and I've got the shamrock now). I've got six bugs. I've never had a game go even close to this well.

Besides all that, now that I know I don't have sit and watch them drag the collectible into the house, my guy has progressed faster in his career than I've ever had one do. He is 40 and just about to get level eight, despite being sued for infringement twice.

Sometimes with these experiments we just happen to get more collectibles because we're finally paying close attention to them. I think you should try to compare these results with what happens when you don't disturb the shrubbery, that would be pretty interesting to see.

It definitely makes sense logically though since that is where the twigs and bugs would be hiding in real life. I'm just not sure to how far the game's programming will go.

OK... my big problem is I can't get any bugs... I have had the same 4 repeatedly appear, but none past that... and I have more than 12generations on at least 2 of my families...

HELP!!!

i don't know where exactly to look for bugs ??
for example : the picture parts are known to appear near the shed ... so where exactly do bugs appear ? i search for them every time when it rains and never found any till now , and if anyone can post some screenshots for where did they appear and how do they look like while the rain drops are already sparkling and it's not easy to see them !!

I've noticed that bugs usually appear in 4 areas: near the shed, near BOTH water hoses and below the workroom. Bugs don't always come out during the rain, they're just more likely to. There are a number of mods make that make spotting the collectibles easier. Just search "collectibles" and you will find a number of them.

Here are a few:

Jazzo's, Borg's, Sally MG's, 1 of several of Lyssaria's, and Moonlyght's

Some of these mods change the collectibles into other images. Personally I use Borg's. Here's a screenshot of a dragonfly. It was found near the lower water hose:

thank you

You're welcome. Happy bug hunting! If you find a purple fly, please send it my way.

Well, 2 months after one family completing their bug collection, I finally completed it with another family!! So thats 2 out of 5 have all collections complete.