What Is a Pest?

[BloomingMarvellous]

What One person calls a Pest is not necessary a Pest to another. Some people stamp on Spiders and don't blink an eyelash, where someone else might have just witnessed that Spider being stamped on and feels sickened inside.

I found it quite pleasurable squashing the Midges that got into the tent and the Car in Scotland this year. What a Blooming Pest they are, but the Birds love them.

[loripo]

One definition says:
An annoying person or thing; a nuisance. An injurious plant or animal, especially one harmful to humans.

I can think of a few humans that come into that category - does anything else intentionally make itself a nuisance? I dont like house flies though

[Red Squirrel]

Well at the moment badgers. Unless I'd seen it myself, the amount of damage they are doing in an unfenced part of the garden, I wouldn't have believed it. Digging for grubs and worms I imagine.
Took most of the morning tamping down the turf. Have now 'planted' 10 solar lights to keep them away. Hopefully.

[TheSeagull]

To me a pest species is one that could directly cause me harm. I do not like when I see people shooting moles etc. for digging up their lawn etc. is it really that big a deal? To me a pest species are species that are parasitic on humans or carry human-transmitting disease such as tapeworm, mosquito etc.

[Susie]

It's one of those terms like "weed" which can mean different things depending on the situation.

[Digit]

Took most of the morning tamping down the turf. Have now 'planted' 10 solar lights to keep them away.

I wouldn't hold up too much hope I'm afraid, people just do not realise what a burden they can be.
We used to have a Rottwelier/Lab cross that weighed in at over ten stone, and Badgers just ignored him!

Roy.

[Monkey Orchid]

One person's pest species is another person's wildlife, I guess...

When I worked as a countryside ranger we used to get a lot of calls from the public asking us to come and deal with 'pest' species that they wanted removing from their gardens, homes or neighbourhoods. These included snakes, foxes, deer, badgers, mink, magpies, grey squirrels, tadpoles/frogs and bees. Some of these animals were causing inconvenience for home owners or gardeners (and in some cases, for native wildlife), but the majority were simply sharing habitat space with humans.

Ragwort is a native wild plant which supports hosts of UK invertebrates, including the Cinnabar moth for which it is the chief caterpillar foodplant - yet for many horse-owners ragwort is a noxious weed which must be eliminated at all costs, because of its toxicity to grazing animals.

It's aggravating when an animal or plant starts adversely affecting our own efforts to live and do what we want to do - as a vegetable gardener, I gnash my teeth at the depredations of slugs and snails, and regularly curse bindweed as it wraps its way around things. But I do try to keep in mind that despite this, these are not 'pest' species... They are simply competing with me for resources. It's up to me to decide how aggressively I want to respond in this battle for territory.

Living organisms which cause disease or injury in humans, such as parasites, viruses, bacteria and the animal vectors which transmit them, are trickier. I believe in protecting biodiversity, but I wouldn’t carry it as far as conserving say the Ebola virus or not using medicines to treat a dangerous infectious illness. Even though there’s some evidence now to show that the existence of a certain amount of parasites, bacteria etc is actually important in the development and functioning of a healthy human immune system.

[loripo]

The online Telegraph today has an article saying...
The parakeet is now fair game under new rules from the wildlife watchdog Natural England which allow the birds to be shot without a licence.
and also lists canada geese and a couple of others. Presumably because the parakeets are affecting fruit crops, but I dont like the idea of them being shot.

[BloomingMarvellous]

Came across Green Parakeets last Monday whilst on a brisk walk around a park at Orpington. How Beautiful they looked flying through woods, screeching out to each other, and just being free, absolutely lovely to see, and even managed to record there call.

[ron1863]

My sister.