If you injure a bug, should you kill it or let it live and not die?
This happens to me all the time. I accidentally step on a bug and injure it. It sits there struggling and I'm always confused over if I should kill it to relieve it of pain or let it live in hopes that it may survive.
49 Answers
Looks like the philosophers and theists have made their cases. As far as entomologists are concerned, insects do not have pain receptors the way vertebrates do. They don't feel "pain," but may feel irritation and probably can sense if they are damaged. Even so, they certainly cannot suffer because they don't have emotions. If you heavily injure an insect, it will most likely die soon: either immediately because it will be unable to escape a predator, or slowly from infection or starvation. Ultimately this crippling will be more of an inconvenience to the insect than a torturous existence, so it has no "misery" to be put out of but also no real purpose anymore. If it can't breed anymore it has no reason to live.
In other words, I have not answered your question because, as far as the science is concerned, neither the insect nor the world will really care either way. Personally, though, I'd avoid doing more damage than you've already done. 1) Maybe the insect will recover, depending on how damaged it is. 2) Some faiths do forbid taking animal lives, so why go out of your way to kill? 3) You'll stain your shoe.
In other words, I have not answered your question because, as far as the science is concerned, neither the insect nor the world will really care either way. Personally, though, I'd avoid doing more damage than you've already done. 1) Maybe the insect will recover, depending on how damaged it is. 2) Some faiths do forbid taking animal lives, so why go out of your way to kill? 3) You'll stain your shoe.
Martin Gradwell,
Views
If you have a philosophical objection to killing, you could place a tiny droplet of beer or wine next to the damaged insect. This will have a suitably anaesthetic effect, and ensure that the final moments of the insect are happy, if the thing is in fact capable of happiness. It's also a good excuse for opening a bottle of beer or wine, and the insect's share hardly diminishes from the total.
Bear in mind that what might seem to us to be terrible damage might be something an insect can take in its stride. I remember when I was little seeing some sort of grub on a leaf (I think it was a ladybird larva) come across a clump of aphids. In its enthusiasm for consuming the aphids it actually punched a hole in the side of its own mouth, using its retractable piercing mouth-parts. This looked like a serious self-inflicted injury, but bear in mind that in turning into an adult the insect would probably discard its entire larval skin, including the damaged mouth area.
Bear in mind that what might seem to us to be terrible damage might be something an insect can take in its stride. I remember when I was little seeing some sort of grub on a leaf (I think it was a ladybird larva) come across a clump of aphids. In its enthusiasm for consuming the aphids it actually punched a hole in the side of its own mouth, using its retractable piercing mouth-parts. This looked like a serious self-inflicted injury, but bear in mind that in turning into an adult the insect would probably discard its entire larval skin, including the damaged mouth area.
James Radvan,
Views
If you let it live, or kill it, out of a desire to increase its suffering, then you are morally wrong.
If you let it live, or kill it, out of a desire to minimise its suffering, then you are morally right.
In the (presumed) absence of the insect's ability to contemplate its own life and death or indicate a preference, your genuine state of mind is the deciding factor.
If you let it live, or kill it, out of a desire to minimise its suffering, then you are morally right.
In the (presumed) absence of the insect's ability to contemplate its own life and death or indicate a preference, your genuine state of mind is the deciding factor.
Joseph Tang,
Views
Other considerations:
-We are very much chemical creatures, in that the majority of our bodily functions and processes happen chemically -> food eventually gets broken down into ATP, a necessary chemical powerhouse of energy for our cells/body; neurochemicals latch onto receptors in the brain to trigger appropriate responses; our lungs work to bring oxygen into our bloodstream; etc.
That's the same for insects, perhaps more so—communication via pheromones, for instance (and obviously, not necessarily in the same, exact way).
-We have a brain, especially a large cortex, that is able to process responses and triggers and assign meaning to them.
Not true for insects.
-Insects have an overwhelming drive to do what they do. That's why bees make nests & honeycombs while ants make tunnels, and not vice versa. They have a "programmatic" existence that, I contend, doesn't allow for them to "question their existence", which I believe the OP is trying to get at.
(Though, as I hold my bated breath, I hope a new race of insects won't one day be born and incur their own Cartesian split.)
What I would do:
-If it's cute and and Disney movie material, I'll probably have a failed attempt at nursing it back to health, considering I have absolutely no knowledge of emergency medical procedures for treating invertebrate creatures.
-If it looks wretched and Human Centipede/[insert insect here] movie material, I will run and scream bloody mary until it disappears and I've forced it out of memory.
-Exceptions: Insects that may fall into the latter but eat the more heinous examples of the category get a free pass (while I pretend it doesn't see me).
-We are very much chemical creatures, in that the majority of our bodily functions and processes happen chemically -> food eventually gets broken down into ATP, a necessary chemical powerhouse of energy for our cells/body; neurochemicals latch onto receptors in the brain to trigger appropriate responses; our lungs work to bring oxygen into our bloodstream; etc.
That's the same for insects, perhaps more so—communication via pheromones, for instance (and obviously, not necessarily in the same, exact way).
-We have a brain, especially a large cortex, that is able to process responses and triggers and assign meaning to them.
Not true for insects.
-Insects have an overwhelming drive to do what they do. That's why bees make nests & honeycombs while ants make tunnels, and not vice versa. They have a "programmatic" existence that, I contend, doesn't allow for them to "question their existence", which I believe the OP is trying to get at.
(Though, as I hold my bated breath, I hope a new race of insects won't one day be born and incur their own Cartesian split.)
What I would do:
-If it's cute and and Disney movie material, I'll probably have a failed attempt at nursing it back to health, considering I have absolutely no knowledge of emergency medical procedures for treating invertebrate creatures.
-If it looks wretched and Human Centipede/[insert insect here] movie material, I will run and scream bloody mary until it disappears and I've forced it out of memory.
-Exceptions: Insects that may fall into the latter but eat the more heinous examples of the category get a free pass (while I pretend it doesn't see me).
Ezra Stacks,
Views
I work in a business that kills bugs for a living, so perhaps I am not the right person to answer this question objectively! But, quora has never been about objectivity anyway.
First, if you are looking at this situation from the aspect of "feeling pain", you need to understand what pain is to insects. There are some studies that suggest they are capable of feeling it, but it is entirely different from our idea of it. Human pain always involves the aspect of "drama" to it. The "idea" that the pain is happening to you in this moment (when it could as easily not be happening).
To insects pain is something that helps them learn what to avoid.
So, to your question - looking at thinks from the prism of morality is not always the most practical way to go. I really liked this answer
"If you are willing to eat it, kill it and eat it. If not, let it be because it will stay fresh longer for whatever is willing to eat it."
Now, THAT's practical, which is all that nature is trying to be at the end of the day. You already stepped on the bug - no way to undo that action. Killing it is yet another action that you can't undo, so why bother?
Ezra Stacks,
Researcher @ Top-Notch Pest Control in Kingston upon Thames (I'm a bit more familiar with insects than I'd like to be!)
First, if you are looking at this situation from the aspect of "feeling pain", you need to understand what pain is to insects. There are some studies that suggest they are capable of feeling it, but it is entirely different from our idea of it. Human pain always involves the aspect of "drama" to it. The "idea" that the pain is happening to you in this moment (when it could as easily not be happening).
To insects pain is something that helps them learn what to avoid.
So, to your question - looking at thinks from the prism of morality is not always the most practical way to go. I really liked this answer
"If you are willing to eat it, kill it and eat it. If not, let it be because it will stay fresh longer for whatever is willing to eat it."
Now, THAT's practical, which is all that nature is trying to be at the end of the day. You already stepped on the bug - no way to undo that action. Killing it is yet another action that you can't undo, so why bother?
Ezra Stacks,
Researcher @ Top-Notch Pest Control in Kingston upon Thames (I'm a bit more familiar with insects than I'd like to be!)
