BUGS THAT LOVE!

A debut nonfiction book offers stories about endearing insect pets.

In this work, Lori-Michele introduces readers to the menagerie of insects that have kept her company over the past decade. Her pets have mostly been Western conifer seed bugs—a handful of shield bugs round out the collection—and the author has gotten to know the insects as individuals as well as on a species level. Lori-Michele explains how her first Western conifer seed bug came to take up residence in her home. She recounts the system she developed for interacting with the insects and taking care of them, from bottle caps filled with sugar water to small cloth beds where the bugs tuck themselves in every night. All the insects have names, and the author describes the highly individual personalities she has observed in each. Much of the text consists of stories about the antics of Maybe, Peppercorn, Cautious, Ribbon, and their compatriots, who enjoy being petted, keep their owner company while she watches TV or uses a computer, and occasionally get rough with other bugs. Lori-Michele’s close connection to her insects has led her to conclude that they are capable of both feeling and understanding emotions and are more intelligent than both entomologists and laypeople generally believe (“Entomologists completely dismiss the notion of the Western conifer’s ability to love and their intelligence because they are not shown to look for these things or that they matter”). Insect aficionados will be tempted to embrace the book’s detailed instructions for caring for Western conifer seed bugs after reading the author’s passionate advocacy for them. The text can be repetitive (for instance, readers are instructed three times in 10 pages to clean and refill the bottle cap feeders), and the prose is unpolished, with occasional comma splices and misused words. But Lori-Michele’s enthusiasm for her bugs makes for enjoyable reading, and her meticulous observation of their behavior supports her arguments for their emotional intelligence. Numerous photographs by the author throughout the text illustrate the behaviors described and showcase the insects’ individuality.

An engaging argument for keeping bugs as pets.