Do insects feel pain?

Question

Given the primative nature of their brains can insects feel pain in the same way that mammals and higher animals do? I know they react to external stimuli which can be threatening such as heat, but is this just a reflex reaction or do they actually feel pain?

Answer 1

Insects do feel pain. The neuro system in insects is developed enough so that they can feel pain and avoid bad stimuli.

Answer 2

No. They do not feel the sense like we humans do. This is because we have a central nervous system running through our vertebra (backbone) which sends messages to our brain. This means that if if our leg is hurt, we feel the pain at the top brain. On the other hand, the insects are non-vertebra and they do not have central nervous system. Thus if an ant's leg is crushed, only the leg will feel local pain. Moreover, their pain magnitude is short, since they produce large number of off springs and their life is short. They can also reproduce their lost organs. It has been observed that if you cut a cockroach's head, it will die after a month due to starving. Scientists have cut a lobster's leg and feed him, which he ate. It is also true that except for human beings no other animal is aware of its existence.

Answer 3

Insects have a central nervous system!!! Instead of a dorsal spinal cord, they have a VENTRAL nerve cord. They still have nerve endings, the works.

All pain is, in my opinion, is a negative reaction to a stimulus. Do insects do this? YES. Is it just a programmed response? Yes, but it is in humans as well. When we feel pain, we automatically react to it, and then we whine, cry, etc afterward, but that is not the pain, that is the emotion that follows or coincides with the pain. Insects can feel pain.

Answer 4

no. An insects nervous system is directly connected to the muscular system, and not to the brain. When an insect squirms, it's because its body does not know what to do to solve the problem, this is also why insect limbs will squirm after they are seperated from the insect's body, the nerves are telling the legs, "do something, the body isn't attached anymore." however, the insects meager excuse for a central cortex (i.e. brain in a more sophisticated creature) is never aware of the failure in the body.

Answer 5

The real answer is, 'We don't really know'. As you pointed out, they do react to stimuli and threats but it does not tell us what actual goes on inside their brains. One can program a robot to react to stimuli but we know that it cannot feel in the same way that we feel. Anglers have also maintained that fish cannot 'feel' pain. How do they know?

Answer 6

Pain is nature's way of protecting things from danger. Insects likely do not feel pain in the same way mammals do, but I think they absolutely feel something.

As someone else said, I have never believed fish do not feel pain. People who fish saying they don't are kidding themselves into thinking they do no harm.

Answer 7

No. They can feel sensations, but pain is not one of them. Invertebrates are classically defined as animals which lack a’ backbone’ or dorsal nerve cord, such as insects. Without it, the evidence and consensus is that they do not feel pain.

Answer 8

There's really no way to know for sure, but most people think that they don't because they lack a central nervous system as well as the signal-transduction pathways which allow higher animals to sense pain. The theory is that they sense something and react to the stimulus, but they don't have the necessary "equipment" to process pain and suffering.

Answer 9

yes
they have a nervous system
every living creture does
even plants
they have attached electrodes to leaves and found that there is a reaction toheat stimuli which can be interpreted as pain

Answer 10

I would think they feel pain...a friend pulled the wings off A Fly the other day and the fly told me that he was upset as he would have to change his name to 'A Walk'...