Do Insects Feel Pain?

Do insects feel pain? This is a very important ethical question when it comes to experimenting with insects and other invertebrates that aren't cephalopods or lobsters. Determining what pain is and whether an organism has that experience is not without its challenges, and we delve into what we do and don't know about pain in other animals in today's episode.

Check out our collaboration over on Neurotransmissions:
Do Bugs Have Brains?

Cyborg Beetle video that inspired this video:

Behind the scenes available to patrons on patreon:

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Other footage used with permission / royalty free / my own

Drosophila paper:

Music & SFX licensed from Epidemic Sound

BG music:

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This episode was supported by these brilliant patrons:
Eddie Jaoude
Leildin
Simon Welsh
Tim Blais
Stephen Armsworth
Brandon C.
Mik Scheper
Eddy Cordon
Wesley Gardner
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Iván Dequito
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Inés Dawson (Draw Curiosity) is a science youtuber, and a PhD student researching the biomechanics of insect flight.

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[DrawCuriosity]

I hope you found today's video interesting - I'd love to hear your opinion on the matter.
It's very interesting and expertly edited!

[minephalt]

Anyone else here cos they recently killed something

[-Slinger-]

Wow, that is an impressively long braid.

[EP-pgxs]

I can't imagine any living organism to not experience some sort of negative smiluli, other wise what is stopping an insect from flying directly into fire for example, they know to avoid that.

[TheCraftedMine]

Bugs when a shadow passes over the:
**FUCKING

Also bugs, when a mantis is ripping them in half and feasting on their organs:
"Oh, I should clean my antenna, one sec..."

[Khepramancer]

Well, let's assume that most creatures feel pain to some degree, and be as respectful as we can.

[adamwarlock]

Insects are essentially like mammals, in the sense that they function in the same way. They have a circulatory and nervous system and breath oxygen. I think it's safe to say by deductive reasoning that they also experience fear, pain and other sensations and emotions. I came to this conclusion with out the need to perform a single experiment on an insect.

[KitsuneSoftware]

Lobsters could be an interesting test case for an even bigger ethical headache. Lobsters have about 100, 000 neurons (says Wikipedia), which is small enough it can *already* be replicated (as an artificial neural network) on a normal home computer, a few hundred times faster than real-time.

I understand that it's difficult to be sure, even in the case of biological neural networks such as lobsters, yet we *need* to be able to say with confidence if things are capable of suffering, just to make sure we don't accidentally make AI which can suffer without realising what we've done.

[neurotransmissions]

It was so great collaborating with you, Inés! Can’t wait to do it again! Maybe next time we’ll come to your side of the pond!.😜

[Tania-nuic]

They feel heat and they feel fear. This I know. They also feel discomfort too. I know this for a fact. I've seen a small bug trapped in a fire pit racing around in desperation trying to escape from the flames. It ran faster and faster in circles trying to get to safety. I tried to catch it but I wasn't fast enough. Ill never forget that. Also I used to tickle these caterpillars with a soft feather and they would toss their heads about trying to stop this sensation. Which was quite awful of me, I'm ashamed to say... That goodness I got wiser after seeing the little bug in the fire .

[mike.likes.science]

Hi Inés Hi Alie 🙂
I love the point you make towards the end. Pain or no pain, treat animals with respect.
Awesome collab!

[dwqdwwdwqdqwd]

Can humans feel pain? We know that they can exhibit behavior suggesting pain and even communicate feeling pain, but are they really? How can we be sure without science?

[Socratica]

What a tricky problem - especially for those of us working with these model organisms. Thanks for sharing!

[romanmartinez]

I'm pretty sure they do, at least cockroaches. As a kid i captured one and the movements it made as i held a flame to it was a clear indication that it didnt like it at all.

[DanceSeek]

In relation to this subject, I often think of a statement made by a former coworker, regarding the attractions at a Hormel pork processing plant open house. These included a spectacle of herding the pigs with electric shocks in the floor to the apparent distress of the pigs, and the delight of some of the human observers. This display has since been shut down due to ethical concerns brought by PETA or similar. My coworker voiced the opinion that the pigs had been brought there to be slaughtered for meat, so it didn't matter how they were treated. I couldn't think of anything to say at the time, but I have since thought that although we may conclude that we have the right to sacrifice some other vertebrates to enhance our own survival and quality of life, it is callous to deliberately increase their suffering before the time they are sacrificed. We do violence to ourselves by giving no consideration to the suffering of these beings.

[waywardmuse]

I feel that an insect probably does feel pain - just not in the same way we do obviously. Therefore approaching them on the assumption that they do feel pain is more humane. In any case, great video - enjoyed it!

[DaHaiZhu]

I don't understand why 'pain' requires an emotional response.
Pain is your brain telling you that something harming you. If a bug steps on a hot surface it will jump or fly off. Because it is causing harm. It doesn't just stand there and fry.
An emotional response to pain is just that: 'an emotional response' to pain. It's a Cause and Effect. But the emotional response is only an effect and not the only effect of pain. It's does not work backwards: if you feel pain, then you cry does not mean if you cry then it's because you feel pain.
So, YES, they feel pain because pain is a sign of harm being done and bugs will avoid things that cause harm.
That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

[reebee]

They may not feel pain from the loss of a leg, but fire causes every being pain.

[HYDROCARBON_XD]

They can feel pain but cannot suffer from pain because their nervous system is very simple

[Eamon]

I cut off half of an ants leg and remember it running and flickering itself which definitely looks like it's in tremendous pain