Welcome to insect month!

Let's roll down our sleeves...

Since June is a party time for insects where we live, we thought it would be a great animal focus for the next few weeks. Plus, insects are amazing! There are more than 1.5 million different species of insects around the world—so many that scientists haven’t even identified them all yet! If you put all the insects in the world together (yikes), they’d take up more space than the combined mass of any other group of land animals. Right now as you read this post, there are some 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) individual insects alive (!).

Insects are not just numerous; they’re so important that we couldn’t live very long without them. They pollinate plants, which helps our ecosystem stay in balance and makes it possible for our farmers to produce the food we eat. Insects are necessary for producing honey, silk, beeswax, and many kinds of dye. They also decompose organic matter, like dead trees and dead animals—logs and carcasses would really pile up without insects. They’re a great food source, part of the traditional diets of 3,000 different ethnic groups around the world. In fact, some people think that easy-to-grow (and tasty) insects could be the key to solving world hunger.

Plus, they’re beautiful and fascinating—just look at this assemblage of preserved insects from Christopher Marley’s Exquisite Creatures exhibit we saw earlier this year:

Or check out this video about the incredible life cycle of a ladybug:

So, what are you interested in learning about? Specific kinds of insects? The difference between bugs, beetles, and insects? Do you want to keep an insect as a pet? Raise butterflies? Are you worried about the fireflies? Tell us what you’re curious about:

We’re going to talk to some kid insect enthusiasts this month, and we’ll write about some fun insect projects too.

In other news, Belle is at the National Humanities Center this month, working on a book project, and Bea starts her first week of summer camp next week. So postings may not be three times a week for this month—but who knows! There are a lot of insects to write about, it’s (crossed fingers) the start of chanterelle season, and maybe Richard and Harriet can take over for a post or two.

Also, we forgot to post a final picture of our finished trip tapestry. We shared it with our friends from our trip on Sunday, and now it’s hanging in a place of honor in Bea’s room:

See you on Friday, Frog Troublers! Happy last week of school for all who celebrate!

P.S. If you’re in Raleigh, this Wednesday So & So Books is hosting an awesome night of science, poetry, and stories with Karen Anderson (Receipt), Ron Dunn (A Natural History of the Future), and me! It’s at 6:00, and we’d love to see you! And on Sunday at 2:00, I’ll be talking with bestselling novelist Therese Ann Fowler about her exquisite new book, It All Comes Down to This. That’s in Pittsboro at our beloved McIntyre’s Books, and I’d love to see you there too.