Pest (organism)

Carpet beetle larvae damaging a specimen of Sceliphron destillatorius in an entomological collection

A pest is "a plant or animal detrimental to humans or human concerns (as agriculture or livestock production)";[1] alternative meanings include organisms that cause nuisance and epidemic disease associated with high mortality (specifically: plague). In its broadest sense, a pest is a competitor of humanity.[2]

Concept

A pest is any living organism, whether animal, plant or fungus, which is invasive or troublesome to plants or animals, human or human concerns, livestock, or human structures. It is a loose concept, as an organism can be a pest in one setting but beneficial, domesticated or acceptable in another.

Pests often occur in high densities, making the damage they do even more detrimental. Termite

Animals are called pests when they cause damage to agriculture by feeding on crops or parasitising livestock, such as codling moth on apples, or boll weevil on cotton. An animal could also be a pest when it causes damage to a wild ecosystem or carries germs within human habitats. Examples of these include those organisms which vector human disease, such as rats and fleas which carry the plague disease, mosquitoes which vector malaria, and ticks which carry Lyme disease.

A species can be a pest in one setting but beneficial or domesticated in another (for example, European rabbits introduced to Australia caused ecological damage beyond the scale they inflicted in their natural habitat). Many weeds are also seen as useful under certain conditions, for instance Patterson's curse is often valued as food for honeybees and as a wildflower, even though it can poison livestock.

The animal groups of greatest importance as pests (in order of economic importance) are insects, mites, nematodes and gastropods.[3]

The term "plant pest" has a specific definition in terms of the International Plant Protection Convention and phytosanitary measures worldwide. A pest is any species, strain or biotype of plant, animal, or pathogenic agent injurious to plants or plant products.[4] Plants may be considered pests themselves if an invasive species.

By taxon

Vertebrate pests

Birds

Amphibians

Mammals

Invertebrates

Insects and arachnids

Agricultural and domestic arthropods
Caterpillars cause crop damage
Termites cause structural damage
Tree and forest pests
Ectoparasites

Nematodes

Gastropod molluscs

These include slugs and land snail pests:

Some slugs are pests in agriculture and gardens.[3] Deroceras reticulatum is a worldwide slug pest.[3] Local importance slug pests include: Deroceras spp.,[3] Milax spp.,[3] Tandonia sp.,[3] Limax spp.,[3] Arion spp.[3] and some species of Veronicellidae:[3] Veronicella sloanei.[8]

Weeds and plant diseases

By host range

By feeding type

By population presence

By biological characters

See also

References

  1. ↑ Merriam-Webster dictionary, accessed 22 August 2012.
  2. ↑ "Pest vermin". Britannica. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Speiser B. (2002). "Chapter 219. Molluscicides". 506–508. doi:10.1201/NOE0824706326.ch219 PDF In: Pimentel D. (ed.) (2002). Encyclopedia of Pest Management. ISBN 978-0-8247-0632-6.
  4. ↑ FAO Corporate Document Repository: Guidelines for Phytosanitary Certificates. Retrieved 1 August 2012
  5. ↑ Lowe S., Browne M., Boudjelas S. and de Poorter M. (2000). 100 of the World’s Worst Invasive Alien Species. A selection from the Global Invasive Species Database. The Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG), a specialist group of the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), Auckland.
  6. ↑ "ABC Wildwatch". Abc.net.au. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
  7. ↑ Greenhall, Arthur M. 1961. Bats in Agriculture. A Ministry of Agriculture Publication. Trinidad and Tobago
  8. 1 2 3 4 Stange L. A. (created September 2004, updated March 2006). "Snails and Slugs of Regulatory Significance to Florida". Division of Plant Industry, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Accessed 27 August 2010.
  9. ↑ Villalobos M. C., Monge-Nájera J., Barrientos Z. & Franco J. (1995). "Life cycle and field abundance of the snail Succinea costaricana (Stylommatophora: Succineidae), a tropical pest". Revista de Biología Tropical 43: 181-188. PDF.
  10. ↑ Barrientos Z. (1998). "Life history of the terrestrial snail Ovachlamys fulgens (Stylommatophora: Helicarionidae) under laboratory conditions". Revista de Biología Tropical 46(2): 369-384. PDF. HTM in the Google chache.

Further reading

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