It is now summer, and that means one thing for sure: insects are well and truly here.
From the mosquito that won’t let you sleep to the flies in the village — we won’t even mention the word that starts with “c” and ends in “ockroach” — we are called upon to coexist with them and, at times, deal with them using slippers, repellent tablets and other inventive techniques.
Still, some people feel a small wave of guilt when they kill an insect.
For many years, the prevailing belief was that insects have no subjective experience whatsoever and operate purely on “reflexes.”
In recent years, however, scientists have been gathering evidence suggesting that at least some insects may have some form of “consciousness” — that is, the capacity for subjective experiences with a positive or negative quality, such as pleasure, discomfort or pain.
The chances that this is true are estimated at 20%–40%.
There are indications that bees do not simply react reflexively to pain, but may consciously experience it.
In a 2022 study, bees approached food even though doing so meant exposing themselves to intense heat, weighing the cost against the benefit.
Experts say that a being acting purely on reflex would not be able to do this, but would avoid the heat in every case.
Evidence that insects may have consciousness has also been observed in a species of fly — the fruit fly — as a 2017 study found that they can show signs of anhedonia, meaning they lose interest in things that normally attract them, such as food.
In humans, this is one of the well-known symptoms of depression.
What is particularly interesting is that when researchers gave the flies an antidepressant also used in humans — a Prozac-type drug — this “depression-like” state appeared to subside.
That is a very subjective question — fyi.news is not here to tell you what you should feel.
Obviously, however, the possibility that insects may have consciousness and feel pain does increase the moral weight of killing them.
There are, though, schools of thought that can help frame the answer.
According to the pragmatist* argument put forward by philosopher E. Anderson, our obligations toward animals do not depend only on whether they are conscious or feel pain, but also on their relationship with us.
We have one kind of responsibility toward a dog that depends on us, another toward a wild animal, and another toward an insect that multiplies and threatens the hygiene of our home.
* A philosophical approach that evaluates moral principles based on how they function in real social conditions.
One option is that, even when killing insects, we try to “reduce the harm” caused to them. In other words:
not killing them unnecessarily;
removing them when possible;
preventing infestations, for example through cleanliness and properly sealing food;
and, when killing them is necessary for hygiene or safety reasons, doing so as quickly and painlessly as possible.
