When my two daughters were small, and I saw a spider (either on an inside wall or outside the house), I would quickly step on it or kill it with a rolled-up newspaper. There weren’t a lot of them, but if my two young daughters saw me go after one, they would scream, “Daddy! Don’t kill it, please!” I could never figure out why they were like that.

Even today, years later, I hesitate to kill one.

As I read Elijah Munro-Ludders’ letter, “Save the bees before it’s too late,” in the July 28 Maine Sunday Telegram, it took me back in time and I could still hear my two little girls crying, “Daddy! Please don’t kill it!”

It was a wonderful letter that he wrote. I don’t have a garden now, but that letter made me wish that the people who do would heed his warning about using deadly chemical pesticides and what the yearly losses to our bees would mean.

Donald Knight

Portland