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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/13/insects-feel-pain-research
34 Kommentare
Do insects feel pain? Crickets certainly seem to, according to new research which finds they stroke and groom a sore antenna in much the same way as a dog nurses its hurt paw.
Associate Prof Thomas White, an entomologist from the University of Sydney, said the experience of pain was a “longer, drawn-out, ouchy feeling”, that differed from a hardwired nerve response.
But evidence for pain is difficult to establish in other species, he says, so scientists look for behavioural cues. One indicator is “flexible self-protection”, where an animal directs protection to a particular body part over an extended period of time.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article-abstract/293/2070/20260609/481623/Flexible-self-protection-as-evidence-of-pain-like
I don’t know why anyone would ever think that any creature doesn’t feel pain.
Just less than 100 years ago scientists said dogs and cats don’t feel pain
And now we are confirming that even insects feel pain
Pain is an important defense mechanism for all living things to avoid death. It makes no sense not to have it
If you understand anything about how an anticholinesterase works you would assume a level of pain and discomfort involved. That’s why I prefer to splatter cockroaches, but sometimes the spray is more appropriate.
If bug spray causes insect pain, I better use twice as much to end their suffering quickly
If you have an ounce of empathy, you don’t need science to tell you that they feel pain. Every single living being deserves respect.
But I absolutely want any cockroach I find in my living space to die painfully.
Mosquitos, flies and gnats too.
Is this a psyop so that people get alpha-gal?
I dont kill ticks and mosquitoes because I think they dont feel pain, I kill them because they harm me.
So like we are just supposed to let the bugs be? The title of this article and the subtitle are not pulling in the same direction
Eh, stay out of my house then.
If I’m outside, the worst I’ll do is put on bug repellent or light a citranella candle.
If a wasp is in my house (has happened) yeah, I’m spraying that thing.
My thought on this has always been that if it has a nervous system it almost certainly feels pain. Crickets, for instance, have a nervous system
Everything living would have an evolutionary reason to feel pain. We just rely on outdated paid for research to make our paying habits guilt free until someone proves otherwise.
I don’t think whether or not something feels pain is the only thing under consideration when I kill it. Leeches feel pain too I’m sure, or mosquitos or tapeworms – I feel absolutely no ill will towards the animals in general but also as vectors for disease and potential harm to humans is concerned, burn them all if the ecosystem can go on unaffected
Is there a painless way to get a roach gone? I really am uncomfortable picking them up, especially the flying ones.
Let them feel pain. It is what it is.
Every living being exhibits nociception, which is simply the encoding in some signal of noxious stimuli or harm, and every living thing exhibits it. Bacteria will exhibit it when their cell walls are damaged by bleach or acid. They’ll recoil, try to swim away. When attacked by antibiotics, they’ll attempt to „swim“ away to an area with a lower concentration of it.
Nociception is merely the organism encoding a state of damage to it or noxious stimuli it doesn’t like, and often it leads to reflexive action to avoid the source of harm. Pain on the other hand is something thought to require a more complex brain (or equivalent), because it’s a personal, subjective experience of those nociceptive signals.
And then the big debate has always been whether this animal or that animal are capable of *suffering*, which is a higher order concept involving an emotional, cognitive interpretation of that pain.
Do lichen, moss, protozoa, or fungi experience pain? Bacteria?
it would be counter productive not to feel pain from an evolutionary standup. Pain stops you doing something that could damage you or run away from someone or something causing it to you. If pain didn’t cause suffering it would be far more difficult to survive long enough to procreate
I don’t understand this. For the last 15 years I have seen so many things talking about “ this animal /insect/ fish /etc doesn’t feel pain. “
Whatever you are talking about , if I placed it in front of me and started to cut into it , dose it attempt to flee and get away ? Everything reacts to being damaged. Something is telling it that it is being damaged, what would that be other then pain.
Ok i guess the mice in my apartment should be left alone to fornicate shizen all over my apartment and I catch hunters disease and die.
Isn’t this just obvious? Did we not think insects felt pain? Like they obviously do if you ever injure one or spray one.
All organisms feel pain, if they didn’t they would allow other organisms to eat them.
Who the hell thought bugs didn’t feel pain?
*Pumps my Bug-A-Salt gun*
I hope the mozzie feels his heart race till it explodes. That will teach the mofo for hiding when i turn the lights on at midnight
every being Alive, feels Pain. Be ensured.
I’ve always thought this obvious.
Umm nope. Ticks and mosquitoes get killed because I don’t want to die from their diseases
The idea that animals don’t feel pain was objectively scientifically wrong for years. Just leftover teleological nonsense so we could pretend what we do is actually good.
What is this framing as well, “don’t reach for bug spray” bugs feeling pain doesn’t change the fact they transmit disease.
Well, on the positive side, when i saw the headline I assumed that it was going to be a scare piece about deet or other repellents.
This feels intuitive to me as pain = bad is a basic survival mechanism. It is still worth studying though.
Mosquitoes especially can die the painful death they deserve.
I want the mosquitoes to know… it was me.
I’m ok with mosquitoes experiencing pain.
why would anyone think that bugs dont feel pain?