"What I love about this book is that Margie isn’t traveling to some exotic rainforest to find her subjects. She’s finding beauty, drama, and genuinine wild behavior in the bugs living right in her own backyard, garden plots, and even in flower pots on city balconies.”
The Ellsworth American July 16, 2026, Insect Safari Explores Extraordinary Ordinary Bugs
“’I think insects are having their moment because there have been so many scientific findings about their capabilities and behaviors, and even thoughts and emotions, that they never thought possible from a critter with such a bitty brain,” Patlak said. “They’re very ordinary, but once you drill down and find out what they can do, and what they’re capable of, they become extraordinary.’”
The Ellsworth American, Backyard Aliens, June 16, 2026
"Wasps use tools, recognize faces, and are as precise as neurosurgeons when stinging their prey. Bees play with balls, count, and teach other bees shortcuts for finding nectar in flowers. Ants farm fungi, herd aphids and doctor their wounded siblings. Even miniscule male fruit flies deliberate their mating choices and drown their sorrows with alcohol when they don't get the females they've been courting with their complicated dance steps. All these findings suggest we're not the only smart ones on our planet."
“They used to think that with their little bitty brains, insects couldn’t accomplish much, but when scientists started to look at how insect brains were designed, they realized they are able to do so much with such few brains cells because of a fabulous architecture…There’s no reason to think that these animals don’t share some of the same emotions and intellectual capabilities that we have because they’re all necessary for survival.”
“Despite their abundance and omnipresence, most of us only know a handful of insects, and know very little about even these few. We know where bears go in winter, where baby birds live, and what lions eat, yet few of us can answer such questions about many of the insects around us.”
“The more I learned about wasps, the more I came to appreciate how beneficial they are for the garden. They’re as good at pollinating as bees and they’re really good at hunting down and killing garden pests.”
“Many insects are in some ways superheroes with special powers. The diabolical ironclad beetle can survive being run over by a car. A leafhopper as small as a pinhead can migrate thousands of miles each year. A delicate lacewing can withstand temperatures far below zero. And a bottle fly can smell carrion it consumes from as far as 10 miles away…So the next time you find yourself longing for a close encounter with an alien, take a closer look at the small creatures at your feet or buzzing around you. You may discover that the strangest beings you’ll ever meet have been there all along.”
“I had the usual distaste for mosquitos and other biting insects, but once I started learning about their incredible capabilities, behaviors and superpowers, I became a bug evangelical and can’t stop spouting off how wonderful these bugs are.”
“For those still reluctant to approach an invertebrate, Patlak has some advice. Knowing that most insects, even wasps, ‘are not out to get you' is half the battle, she says. Getting up close with something a little freaky can also expand your mind.”
“I realized I wasn’t writing about the nature of Maine but what this nature was teaching me about the nature of life, loss, renewal, legacy and restorative wonder. I thought what I was learning might be useful to others experiencing a loss of some sort.”
“I realized I wasn’t writing about the nature of Maine but what this nature was teaching me about the nature of life, loss, renewal, and legacy. I thought what I was learning might be useful to others experiencing a loss of some sort.”
"My photography tries to capture those fleeting moments that inspire awe like the light that makes its way through the clouds and shines on the water in such a way that it disrupts your natural frame of reference and instills a child-like sense of wonder...Nature is the ultimate artist and I'm just a scribe recording her wonders for people."
"Spend just a few minutes or a few hours with this book and you will find yourself better for it. Patlak has managed to paint a dazzling photographic portrait of the natural wonder that is Maine."
"This book is about what the nature in Maine taught me about the nature of life. It's also a literary exploration of loss and finding meaning in life, what remains after the ashes are spread ... It has another dimensional quality to it that goes beyond the science writing--the nature and the spirituality and curiosity all sort of became entwined. At first I thought I was just writing about the nature in Maine, but then I realized I was delving into spiritual territory, and no amount of scientific research could answer the questions I was raising."
"I use nature as the ultimate writing prompt: the life cycle of the monarch butterfly morphs into a metaphor for my own family’s migrations and what is passed on from generation to generation, the dramatic tides teach me how fleeting time is and the ephemeral nature of raising a child, and the clouds and weather reveal forces greater than ourselves that take away all illusions of control."
"Witnessing a striped monarch caterpillar's transformation into a 'chartreuse pendant dabbed with gold' and other slices of animals and plants' lifecycles has given Patlak a more profound understanding of her own."
"These essays explore nature and its offerings in good times and bad. From the metamorphosis of monarch butterflies, to the ethereal movement of fog, clouds and Maine’s unpredictable weather, to the monumental tectonic creep of mountains, to time itself kept in rhythm by the tides — all are captured in a science-based perspective that is done so effortlessly that I believe Patlak could be considered a naturalist poet...Life and loss amidst the surreal natural wonder that is coastal Maine are here in real-life moments that confirm the perpetuallity of life. It truly does not end if we open our self to the healing power of a place, its people and its natural wonders. Nature indeed will speak to you about the nature of life."
"For many people, nature is just this kind of flat backdrop to their world and they don’t really notice everything that’s in there, and there’s so much, if you can just tune into it, if you can listen to it, if you can get your senses going in understanding it...The more I learn about the natural world the more it flabbergasts me. It’s just amazing everything that’s out there. It’s sort of like when you look at the stars and all you can see is the Big Dipper, the universe doesn’t seem vast. But, when you can recognize all those other constellations, if not use a telescope to see galaxies, the world becomes much more immense. Some people find that overwhelming--they’re used to themselves having a greater importance, but I feel like if you can connect to a greater sphere, then you become more immense, right? It’s both humbling but also enlarging."
“I thought I was writing a book about the nature of Maine, but ended up writing about the nature of life,” Margie Patlak told a Great Falls Forum audience Thursday.
"Patlak is a curious observer and relentless researcher. More Than Meets the Eye is not only emotionally informed and deeply personal, but benefits from the author’s background in botany and environmental studies, and her ongoing writing about the environment, neuroscience, technology, and biomedical research for popular science publications."
"While Wild and Wondrous has the makings of a coffee table book or the perfect souvenir or house gift, I appreciate it most in combination with More Than Meets the Eye. Patlak brings the reader through a life-changing event in that first book, grieving the deaths of her mother and brother. In reorienting herself to that loss, she took an inventory of where she is and what she has. Wild and Wondrous documents that outcome—becoming re-grounded, as it were
