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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Science
Petra Stock

Don’t reach for the bug spray: scientists find insects may feel pain after crickets nurse sore antennae

A brown house cricket perches on weathered wood against a black background
House crickets – or Acheta domesticus – stroke and groom a sore antenna, according to new research, but evidence for pain is difficult to establish. Photograph: Paul Starosta/Getty Images

Do insects feel pain? Crickets certainly seem to, according to new research which finds they stroke and groom a sore antenna in much the same way as a dog nurses its hurt paw.

Associate Prof Thomas White, an entomologist from the University of Sydney, said the experience of pain was a “longer, drawn-out, ouchy feeling”, that differed from a hardwired nerve response.

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