Vermin (

colloquially Colloquialism (also called ''colloquial language'', ''colloquial speech'', ''everyday language'', or ''general parlance'') is the linguistic style used for casual and informal communication. It is the most common form of speech in conversation am ...

varmint(s) or varmit(s)) are pests or nuisance animals that spread diseases and destroy crops,

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

, and

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, re ...

. Since the term is defined in relation to human activities, which species are included vary by region and enterprise. The term derives from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''vermis'' ( worm), and was originally used for the worm-like

larvae A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect developmental biology, development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typical ...

of certain

insects Insects (from Latin ') are hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed ...

, many of which infest foodstuffs. The term ''varmint'' (and ''vermint'') has been found in sources from c. 1530–1540s.

Definition

The term "vermin" is used to refer to a wide scope of organisms, including rodents (such as rats),

cockroaches Cockroaches (or roaches) are insects belonging to the Order (biology), order Blattodea (Blattaria). About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are well-known Pest (organism), pests. Modern cockro ...

termites Termites are a group of detritophagous eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, and soil humus. They are distinguished by their moniliform antennae and the sof ...

, bed bugs, stoats, sables. Historically, in the 16th and 17th century, the expression also became used as a derogatory term associated with groups of persons typically plagued by vermin, namely beggars and vagabonds, and more generally the poor. Disease-carrying rodents and

are the usual case, but the term is also applied to larger animals—especially small predators—typically because they consume

resources ''Resource'' refers to all the materials available in our environment which are Technology, technologically accessible, Economics, economically feasible and Culture, culturally Sustainability, sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and want ...

which humans consider theirs, such as

and crops. Birds which eat cereal crops and fruit are an example. The American crow (''Corvus brachyrhynchos''), is widely hated by farmers because of crop depredation. Pigeons, which have been widely introduced in urban environments, are also sometimes considered vermin. Some varieties of

snakes Snakes are elongated Limbless vertebrate, limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales much like other members of ...

and arachnids may also be referred to as vermin. "Vermin" is also used by some people as a term of abuse, either individually or collectively.

''Varmint''

''Varmint'' or ''varmit'' is an American-English colloquialism, a corruption of "vermin" particularly common to the American East and South-east within the nearby bordering states of the vast

Appalachia Appalachia ( ) is a geographic region located in the Appalachian Mountains#Regions, central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains in the east of North America. In the north, its boundaries stretch from the western Catskill Mountai ...

region. The term describes species which raid farms from without, as opposed to vermin (such as rats) that infest from within, thus referring mainly to predators such as feral dogs, foxes, weasels, and coyotes, sometimes even wolves or rarely bears, but also, to a lesser degree, herbivores and burrowing animals that directly damage crops and land. Although "varmint/varmit" is not the prevalent usage in Standard Written English, it is a common descriptor for certain kinds of weapons and

pest control Pest control is the regulation or management of a species defined as a pest (organism), 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 da ...

situations in the Appalachian and nearby states and the American West and South-west which have adopted terms such as '' varmint rifle'' and '' varmint hunting''.

Deterioration of balance

Any species can develop into vermin if introduced into a region where there are favorable living conditions and few natural predators. In such cases, they are seen as an invasive species and humans often choose to fill the role of the predator to limit the danger to the environment. Examples of vermin include goats on the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...

, rabbits in Australia or

cats The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

on Prince Edward Islands. Rats, mice, and

are common urban and suburban vermin. The introduction of Hippos into Colombia by Pablo Escobar led to the Hippos becoming an invasive species. The transplanted Hippos thrived and flourished in Colombia due to the favorable living conditions and few predators leading to a invasively rapid increase of the Hippo population.

United Kingdom

Under Tudor "vermin laws", many creatures were seen as competitors for the produce of the countryside and bounties were paid by the parish for their carcasses. The declaration of the red kite as vermin led to its decline to the point of extirpation in the UK by the 20th century. However, the red kite has since been reintroduced to much of Scotland and the majority of England and Wales by the trans-location of breeding pairs from other parts of Europe.

References

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