My recent letter to the New York Times Magazine editors:

“Thank you so much for your article about seeing bugs for ‘who’ they are. Not inferior to humans or other animals. Just different, each with their own unique skills and sensitivities.

“Since I was four, I’ve been connecting with various bugs. Most become still for me at my request to pick them up and escort them back into the wild.

“Mosquitoes are something else. Those buggers are too clever and evasive for my little brain.

“But they will listen…if you plead with them straight from the heart. Which is what I, and probably some other humans do with success, each summer.

“Mosquitoes won’t be still for me or leave the room. But they have agreed much more often than not, to distance themselves from me for hours, so I can sleep in peace each summer night, without a bite.

“Thank you for all that you do in speaking out for our earthly relatives so essential to our ecosystem.

“Imagine practicing nonviolent communication with the real buggers, not just the human ones.”

I sent that letter over a month ago. Scientific American has this week published this article in their July lst, 2023 edition:

“Do Insects Feel Joy and Pain?“

Do bees make honey?