Do Insects Feel Pain? The Confusing Answer.

If you are like most people, the first thing you want to do is smash a pest when you find them inside of your home or find a cup to trap it and release it outside. While these are two very different approaches, there’s a good chance that you do one or a combination of these pest removal options. However, once you smash some insects, you may start asking yourself if they are able to feel pain. While the answer is a little complicated, we will try to give you the arguments that both sides have presented on the subject.

Insects Don’t Feel Pain

One of the common reasons that some tend to believe that insects are incapable of feeling pain is that their nervous system is vastly different from those seen in the larger, higher order of animals. In an article from ThoughtCo, one of the common contributing factors to this decision is the way that these pests react to an injury. For instance, some pests may still behave normally even if they have lost legs or are being consumed from the inside by parasites. If this was happening to you, wouldn’t you should external evidence of the pain?

Insects Do Feel Pain

In a blog from Oxford University, researchers have proposed an evolutionary perspective that tries to make the perception of pain a trait that is unique to humans due to a learning experience over time. In most cases, it is believed that humans developed a sense of pain due to the dangers that we were facing as a survival mechanism. The idea behind this is that since pests are actively in danger most of the time, they may have evolved to feel pain in some capacity over time. While it is likely this would still show evidence of their pain through limping or other issues, it is typically uncommon.

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