Entomologists' knowledge of, and attitudes towards, insect welfare in research and education

Abstract

A review of recent research on insect neurobiology and behaviour suggests there is a realistic possibility of sentience in at least some insects at some life stages. As a result, there has been growing interest in insect welfare by many academics, with a particular focus on farming and research. To date, however, there has been little research on what entomologists believe about insect welfare. Moreover, there has not been any research on how entomologists may address their own concerns regarding insect welfare. In this study, we sourced practices for improving insect welfare in research and education from professional entomologists during workshops at the 2023 national meetings of the Entomological Society of America and Royal Entomological Society. Then, we developed a survey to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of entomologists regarding insect welfare (n = 114). Further, we asked survey participants to assess the six practices that their colleagues proposed—ranging from voluntary, individual‐level guidance through nationally‐coordinated, mandated ethics review—based on (1) the perceived efficacy of each practice to address a variety of welfare‐related concerns, (2) difficulty of implementation, and (3) the likely support for each practice among entomologists. Entomologists self‐reported little training or familiarity with insect welfare but believed training on the topic was important, especially when early in their careers. Entomologists believed the community would be more supportive of voluntary strategies even if mandatory strategies would be more likely to be effective in addressing welfare‐related concerns (though they were expected to be more difficult to implement). We conclude by describing the implications of our findings for a large swath of stakeholders, including scientific societies/journals, academic institutions, funders and policymakers, and principal investigators.