Do slugs feel pain?

Question

Any research or other evidence to back up your views?

And which is crueler - using slug pellets or hitting the slug with a cricket bat?

Answer 1

That is a far more complex question than you think it is.

Consider a similar question: Do colorblind people see 'red'. They certainly do not see the same thing that we see when we see red, but on the other hand they can often distinguish what we call red from other colours by the more subtle differences that they can percieve.

Having set the stage in that way, let's talk about slugs. They have nowhere near the same number of neurons that we do. They can be taught and can learn to a certain extent, and certainly react to stimuli. But it's almost beyond dispute that they cannot experience much of anything with as much depth as we do... they simply don't have the capacity for it. (Link 1 demonstrates this, though I think the researcher reached a little bit on their ultimate conclusions).

Yet pain is an experience that occurs on the cellular level. And we know that slugs do react to damage. So I'm going to have to say that although it's nowhere near the same thing to a slug as it is to a person, that they almost certainly experience SOME kind of pain sensation. And further, they rather obviously do not like it.

Interestingly enough, because the toxins used in slug pellets are purposely kept in a low concentration so they won't kill other animals outright, they also don't kill slugs outright. Here we have another example that slugs can learn - some slugs learn to avoid eating pellets. And to make matters worse, some eat them slowly over time and build up an immunity to them. So not only are pellets dangerous to other animals, but they are not entirely effective against slugs, and could cause slow deaths when they do.

So, strange as it may seem, I would argue that smacking slugs with a bat is more humane than poisoning them. Like guillotined humans, they undoubtedly do suffer for a little bit, but at least it's the minimum suffering one can really imagine inflicting, if such things concern you.

Many gardeners recommend stimulating predator populations for slug control. Attract birds or get a pet snake or something. Predators will actively look for slugs all the time, and you can hardly stand next to your garden all the time with a cricket bat (what would the neighbors think, anyway?).

Hope that helps! Good luck with your garden!

Answer 2

Do Slugs Feel Pain

Answer 3

The nervous system of slugs, and their relatives such as pulmonate snails is much simpler than our own.

Here is a page detailing the gastropod nervous system http://shells.tricity.wsu.edu/ArcherdShellCollection/Illustrations/NervousSystem.html

The slug's nervous system would be much like the lower figure.

Slugs do have nerves that give tactile sensory input, and they react negatively to certain stimuli. This could, arguably, be known as pain. In addition, they have a chemosensory organ called the osphradium which would allows for a sense of smell/taste. The osphradium is located inside the mantle, and has no nervous system connection to the integument, and so it is highly unlikely that slugs can even detect many environmental chemicals they may encounter, let alone find contact with them 'painful' unless they also stimulate the tactile sensors somehow.

Without the osphradium, snails and slugs have shown little or no sensitivity to any kind of chemical, including their own food.

So in the case of slug pellets, the slug would not feel any pain from ingesting the metaldehydes or methiocarbs used in the pellets. There are simply no nervous system connections that would allow them to feel anything from their digestive system.

In the case of the cricket bat, the time frame between triggering the tactile sensors of the slug and the point at which damage to the slug is so severe that neural activity ceases would be so miniscule that it is unlikely that the signal has reached the ganglia in time to register before the slug is dead.

Slug pellets can be cruel in that they can accidentally poison non-target organisms such as birds, beetles, dogs, hedgehogs and other garden critters, but not cruel to the slugs themselves.

Cricket battery could be considered cruel in the sense of the personal involvement of deliberate physical violence in the act of using the implement. It could also be considered cruel if the splatter from cricket batting slugs were to, say, splash your sister. However, from the viewpoint of the slug's sensation of pain, there wouldn't be any overt cruelty in the method.

Answer 4

The key word in your question is "feel". Just what does that mean? Slugs will react to a stimulus, but so will a dissected piece of muscle from a vertebrate, and the piece of muscle certainly doesn't "feel" pain. Does "feeling" pain mean being conscious of the pain? While under anesthesia we don't feel pain even though we are being sliced open, because we are not conscious. So the question is, is the conscious awareness of a slug while awake any greater than the conscious awareness of a human being under anesthesia? The primitive nerve ganglia of a slug and similar invertebrates are not capable of conscious awareness as we experience it. Therefore such relatively primitive life forms are incapable of "experiencing" pain as we do. In other words, if an organism is experiencing pain, but isn't consciously aware that it is experiencing pain, is it really experiencing pain?

Answer 5

i would guess that slugs do feel pain after all they are living creatures...i mean yea sure they may look like aliens that are slimey and leave a pretty trail of slime that glitters behind them...but they are living. and as for the cruel thing well both are just as cruel, but one is made especially for slugs by man that hate slugs... put it this way...would you rather melt like the wicked witch of the west or would you rather have a quick and fast death....i know what 1 i would perfer...BRING ON THE CRICKET BAT!

Answer 6

They are a living creature. Of course they feel pain.
As for cruelty, pellets "melt" the slugs. A swift whack with a bat is instant.

Are you a "pellets" kinda gal? Have some compassion and just whack it!

Answer 7

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Answer 8

If they have a central nervous system and respond to stimuli, they probally feel something..As for what they feel, ask a slug

Answer 9

All living creatures feel pain. And the hedgehogs will take care of your slugs, unless you have beaten all the hedgehogs to death, you ******* psycho!

Answer 10

Honestly, it depends.

If you dump salt on them and watch them shrivel up, they feel pain.

But, they can crawl across a knife blade and not feel pain because of their slime.