Many human beings still think that animals do not feel pain. Throughout the history of biology, the science that studies living beings, multiple studies have been carried out to answer this and other questions, especially in mammals, but also in other animals, such as insects.. So, Do insects feel pain? In this article on our site we answer this and other questions.
What is pain?
Before delving into the pain of insects or whether insects suffer when they die, it is necessary to ask whether, in general, animals feel. Now then, what is pain? It is a biological response to an external stimulus that endangers the integrity of the organism, that is, it threatens its survival. Faced with the sensation of pain, a rejection response is produced that can manifest itself in different ways:
- Pupil dilation
- Detachment of affected limb
- Flight
- Incrise of cardiac frecuency
- Increased respiratory rate
- Vocalizations or shouts
This sensation of pain is possible thanks to nociception, a process that involves the ability to recognize the threatening stimulus and react with a response. It is, therefore, a reflex This is the biological part, since the signal received by the nerve fibers travels to the spinal cord and from there to the brain.
However, it is not possible to speak of pain without taking into account the suffering that occurs in response to the stimulus, that is, the interpretation or recognition of pain itself. This element is what leads us to wonder if there are living beings that do not feel pain, since science cannot yet guarantee that all animals are capable of having levels of consciousness.
Do animals feel?
Now then, to find out if animals feel, a method of analogy is usually used,that is, to compare the possible reaction that experience in the face of a negative stimulus. To do this, the comparison is made according to the reflex observed in humans, and it can be affirmed that an animal feels pain when it flees, increases its heart rate or presents any of the reactions described in the face of possible painful stimuli.
With this comparison, it is possible to affirm that, without a doubt, mammals and vertebrates feel pain. For example: the bulls feel pain in the ring. What's more: it is easy to verify that many animals recognize when a given stimulus can result in a negative reaction, so they avoid approaching that stimulus based on past experiences
Cats, dogs, mice and even frogs feel pain, along with millions of animal species. This is a basic survival mechanism However, in most cases it is not possible to affirm that there is "awareness of suffering" itself, although physical pain it's real and quite tangible-
Do insects suffer when they die?
It has been proven that vertebrates experience pain sensations, but do insects feel pain? We know that the nervous system is simpler than that of larger organisms, moreover, many of them lack a brain, while others only have structures in simple appearance capable of recognizing nerve impulses.
Keeping this in mind, do insects suffer when they die? One of the species studied to determine this has been the fruit fly, and everything seems to indicate that they are capable of avoiding certain fruits without relating their approach to the pain caused by electric shocks. Although simple organisms, nervous systems have been detected in them, in addition to having mechanisms capable of identifying temperatures, smells, tactile sensations, among othersDue to this, it is possible to affirm that insects feel pain and, therefore, could suffer when they die.
Thinking about the latter, Do insects suffer from insecticide? The chances are high that this is the case. Therefore, we recommend you drive away species such as mosquitoes and flies without damaging them. Also, animals like cockroaches feel pain. And in the case of arachnids, what happens? They are also arthropods, that is, invertebrates, so spiders are very likely to feel pain.
Do insects think?
Now you know that insects feel pain, but, as we have pointed out, we human beings define pain not only by the physical sensation it produces, but also by the awareness that we form about the suffering experienced. Does this mean that insects think? Still there are no conclusive studies in this regard.
Insects have thousands of neurons and differentiated organic systems, so there are high chances that they have some kind of awareness of what surrounds them. However, trying to measure this according to human standards makes it difficult to make a comparison, since they are completely different biological structures. In short, there is still no concrete answer on this.
