Travel Bugs are a specifically branded geocache hitchhiker by Groundspeak. Travel Bugs use the metal tags sold by Groundspeak with a unique serial number in place that identifies the ‘bug in the online database. This allows the Travel Bugs to have all kinds of saved information including their mission or goal, pictures, and a history of their travels.
Some Travel Bugs have very specific goals and it’s best to scout out which ‘bugs are in the area before just grabbing one you run across. You may not be able to satisfy the specific needs of a randomly found Travel Bug, which puts you in an awkward position if you’ve taken it from a cache.
Travel bugs are sold, delivered to your door, for $6.50 each (a bit less if you buy four or eight) and each one includes two painted and stamped metal tags. The first tag is to attach to the trinket that will be doing the traveling. The second is for you to keep (I keep mine on my keys) so that you can always look it up by serial number.
When you’re ready to deploy a new Travel Bug into the wild, place it in your cache of choice, and register the event at geocaching.com. The Travel Bugs each maintain a log much like the logs kept for each cache.
By going to http://www.geocaching.com/track/ you can look for ‘bugs by serial number, location, common use, etc. Geocaching is a rewarding pastime, but these Travel Bugs add an extra dimension of fun. Some people really get into this aspect of the hobby and stick around when they might have otherwise left after a while if limited to the simple cache hunt.