this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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The behavioural cue of ‘flexible self-protection’ is a way to establish whether an animal feels pain, scientists say

Crickets that received the hot probe “overwhelmingly” directed their attention to the affected antenna – they groomed it more frequently, and tended to it over a longer period of time, he says. “They weren’t just agitated and flustered. They were directing their attention to the actual antennae that was hit with this hot probe.”

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[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Well, since catch and release for insects is failboat, and managing an infestation of anything is a health hazard, bug spray ain't going anywhere, pain or not

[–] Slowy@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Like mice, you can acknowledge something feels pain and still need to deal with pest type problems related to it (ideally in a targeted and humane manner). But it may affect some other things for the better such as mandatory killing of crustaceans before boiling, acceptable procedures for invertebrate animal research, eliminating use of live insects for fishing bait, etc.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 1 week ago

mice are too destructive, bites everything, even wires, pees and poops everwhere it can.

[–] teslekova@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

We could modify what's in the spray to reduce the pain while the bugs die. Animal welfare is still quite relevant when you have to kill them.