A pest is any organism harmful to humans or human concerns. The term is particularly used for creatures that damage crops, livestock, and forestry or cause a nuisance to people, especially in their homes. Humans have modified the environment for their own purposes and are intolerant of other creatures occupying the same space when their activities impact adversely on human objectives. Thus, an elephant is unobjectionable in its natural habitat but a pest when it tramples crops.
A woodworm is the wood-eating larva of many species of beetle. It is also a generic description given to the infestation of a wooden item by these larvae.
Pest control is the regulation or management of a species defined as a pest; such as any animal, plant or fungus that impacts adversely on human activities or environment. The human response depends on the importance of the damage done and will range from tolerance, through deterrence and management, to attempts to completely eradicate the pest. Pest control measures may be performed as part of an integrated pest management strategy.
Dermestidae are a family of Coleoptera that are commonly referred to as skin beetles. Other common names include larder beetle, hide or leather beetles, carpet beetles, and khapra beetles. There are over 1,800 species described.
Psocoptera are a paraphyletic group of insects that are commonly known as booklice, barklice or barkflies. The name Psocoptera has been replaced with Psocodea in recent literature, with the inclusion of the former order Phthiraptera into Psocodea.
Clothes moth or clothing moth is the common name for several species of moth considered to be pests, whose larvae eat animal fibres (hairs), including clothing and other fabrics.
The term woodboring beetle encompasses many species and families of beetles whose larval or adult forms eat and destroy wood. In the woodworking industry, larval stages of some are sometimes referred to as woodworms. The three most species-rich families of woodboring beetles are longhorn beetles, bark beetles and weevils, and metallic flat-headed borers. Woodboring is thought to be the ancestral ecology of beetles, and bores made by beetles in fossil wood extend back to the earliest fossil record of beetles in the Early Permian (Asselian), around 295-300 million years ago.
Xylophagy is a term used in ecology to describe the habits of an herbivorous animal whose diet consists primarily of wood. The word derives from Greek ξυλοφάγος (xulophagos) "eating wood", from ξύλον "wood" and φαγεῖν "to eat", an ancient Greek name for a kind of a worm-eating bird. Animals feeding only on dead wood are called sapro-xylophagous or saproxylic.
Tineola bisselliella, known as the common clothes moth, webbing clothes moth, or simply clothing moth, is a species of fungus moth. It is the type species of its genus Tineola and was first described by the Swedish entomologist Arvid David Hummel in 1823. It and a number of closely-related species are together known as the clothes moths due to their function as pests in human households. The specific name is commonly misspelled biselliella – for example by G. A. W. Herrich-Schäffer, when he established Tineola in 1853.
The wharf borer, Nacerdes melanura, belongs to the insect order Coleoptera, the beetles. They belong to the family Oedemeridae, known as false blister beetles. Wharf borers are present in all the states of the USA except for Florida. It takes about a year to develop from an egg to an adult. The name 'wharf borer' comes from the larval stage of this insect, which often lingers on pilings and timbers of wharves, especially along coastal areas. The adult beetles are identifiable via a black band across the end of both elytra. In addition, wharf borers are distinct from other members of the family Oedemeridae due to the presence of a single spur on the tibia of the forelegs and the distance between both eyes. The female beetle oviposits eggs on rotten wood, on which the larvae hatch, burrow, then feed. Adults do not eat and depend on stored energy reserves accumulated as a larva. They are considered a pest because they damage wood used in building infrastructures.
Home-stored product entomology is the study of insects that infest foodstuffs stored in the home. It deals with the prevention, detection and eradication of pests.
The silverfish is a species of small, primitive, wingless insect in the order Zygentoma. Its common name derives from the insect's silvery light grey colour, combined with the fish-like appearance of its movements. The scientific name indicates that the silverfish's diet consists of carbohydrates such as sugar or starches. While the common name silverfish is used throughout the global literature to refer to various species of Zygentoma, the Entomological Society of America restricts use of the term solely for Lepisma saccharinum.
Psocodea is a taxonomic group of insects comprising the bark lice, book lice and parasitic lice. It was formerly considered a superorder, but is now generally considered by entomologists as an order. Despite the greatly differing appearance of parasitic lice (Phthiraptera), they are believed to have evolved from within the former order Psocoptera, which contained the bark lice and book lice, now found to be paraphyletic. They are often regarded as the most primitive of the hemipteroids. Psocodea contains around 11,000 species, divided among four suborders and more than 70 families. They range in size from 1–10 millimetres (0.04–0.4 in) in length.
Dinoderus minutus, the Bamboo borer, is a species of wood-boring beetle. In tropical regions, it is one of the main pests of bamboo, attracted by the internal starch. It is native to Asia but has spread widely with the trade of infested bamboo wood and bamboo products.
Doleromyrma darwiniana is a species of ant in the genus Doleromyrma. Described by Forel in 1907, the species is endemic to Australia and introduced to New Zealand, and it nests in soil or under stones and logs. The organism grows to a length between 2.0 and 3.0 millimeters. This species of ant maintains small colony sizes and it "prefers protein food." The species is also known by some sources as the "brown house ant" and "Darwin's ant". The species is considered a "minor urban pest" in New South Wales.
Integrated pest management in museums, libraries, archives and private collections is the practice of monitoring and managing pest and environmental information with pest control methods to prevent pest damage to collections and cultural property. Preserving cultural property is the ultimate goal for these institutions. The pests come in many different forms: insects, mites, rodents, bats, birds, and fungi and the two most common types are insects and fungi. It is widely recommended that every museum have some form of pest control in place and monitoring system to protect their collection and that museums review their storage and museum facilities to determine how to best control and prevent pest infestations while utilizing an Integrated Pest Management plan.
Liposcelis is a genus of insects in the order Psocoptera, the booklice and barklice. There are about 126 species. Many species are associated with human habitation and several are well known as pests of stored products. The genus is distributed nearly worldwide.
A storage pest is an insect or other animal that damages or destroys stored food or other stored valuable organic matter. Insects are a large proportion of storage pests with each type of crop having specific insects that gravitate towards them such as the genus Tribolium that consists of insects such as Tribolium castaneum or Tribolium confusum which damage flour crops primarily.
