Pest

Pest: see Budapest, Hungary.

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pest

Any organism, usually an animal, judged as a threat to humans. Most pests either compete with humans for natural resources or transmit disease to humans, their crops, or their livestock. Invertebrate pests include some protozoans, flatworms, nematodes, mollusks, arachnids, and especially insects. Mammals and birds can also be pests. Human activities, such as monocultural farming practices, use of broad-spectrum pesticides, and introduction of exotic species, often result in the proliferation of pest species. Certain fungi, bacteria, and viruses are also considered pests. Plant pests are usually called weeds.

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Pest 

a megye (county) in Hungary. Area, 6,400 sq km; population, 870,000 (1970). Its administrative center is Budapest, which itself constitutes an independent administrative unit.

Most of Pest’s terrain consists of a plain, extending along both banks of the Danube River. To a large degree, the region’s economy is linked with that of Hungary’s capital, Budapest, where a considerable portion of Pest’s population is employed. The megye’s industries supplement or support those of the capital. Bituminous coal is mined in Pest. Manufactures include machinery (the production of motor vehicles, bearings, electrical equipment, railroad cars), building materials, textiles, and chemicals. Fruit and vegetables are processed in the cities of Szeged and Nagykörös. Suburban truck farming predominates. In the area between the Danube and the Tisza rivers there are large commercial orchards, vineyards, and vegetable gardens. (A good deal of the produce is exported.) There are also plantings of wheat, rye, and corn. Swine are raised in Pest.