I used the bug whisperer, but instead of bugs I get a lot of the leaves and dirt mounds. Shouldn't this produce bugs instead?

The bug whisperer event is supposed to spawn one or two bugs immediately in the yard. If it's not, we definitely want to know.

It doesn't always work, I've noticed.

I've never seen that event fail to produce at least one or two bugs, although there may be other collectibles in addition to the bugs. You just have to know where to look for them.

I would imagine the entire grassy area outside the house. I play on my iphone, not an ipad, and it is very easy to search all around the outside in a timely mannor. It fails sometimes.

It is a lot more difficult to see the bugs on an iPhone, making them easier to miss, but we'll check it out to make sure it's working properly. The bugs for that event generally appear in a specific area of the yard.

When they appear for the event, I've seen them mostly in the front of the house. I have seen all but 3 bugs at all in the game, never seem to have trouble missing any collection items.

In my game they always seem to be "hiding" at the bottom of the screen, just left of the garbage cans. I have to look carefully as they are hard to see because they are practically behind the dark blue bar on top of the Action / Status windows. (pc version)