Pest (organism)
A pest is "a plant or animal detrimental to humans or human concerns (as agriculture or livestock production)"; 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. 'Pest' is a generic word for other terms such as: insect pests (of agriculture or human disease vectors), vermin, weeds and plant pathogens. In the past, the term might have been used for detrimental animals only, thus for example, causing confusion where the generic term 'pesticide' meant 'insecticide' to some people.
Read more about Pest (organism): Usage of The Term
Famous quotes containing the word pest:
“The pest of society is egotists. There are dull and bright, sacred and profane, coarse and fine egotists. ‘Tis a disease that, like influenza, falls on all constitutions.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)