تصنيف:حشرات آفات

The classification of an insect as a pest is a subjective one, based on its potential damage to human purposes. Pest insects can damage agricultural crops, consume and/or damage harvested food, cause illness or unproductivity in cattle or other agricultural animals, vector human disease.

Some insects are beneficial at one stage of life and a pest at another stage, for example many lepidopterans may be serious pests as larvae, while they may be pollinators in adulthood. Some insects that are considered pests (particularly in suburbia) are actually more beneficial than pestiferous: example wasps (predate or parasitize many pest insects) or bees (the main pollinators of human food supplies).