Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests, including weeds. The term pesticide includes all of the following: herbicide, insecticides nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, antimicrobial, and fungicide. The most common of these are herbicides which account for approximately 80% of all pesticide use. Most pesticides are intended to serve as plant protection products, which in general, protect plants from weeds, fungi, or insects.
A biocide is defined in the European legislation as a chemical substance or microorganism intended to destroy, deter, render harmless, or exert a controlling effect on any harmful organism. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses a slightly different definition for biocides as "a diverse group of poisonous substances including preservatives, insecticides, disinfectants, and pesticides used for the control of organisms that are harmful to human or animal health or that cause damage to natural or manufactured products". When compared, the two definitions roughly imply the same, although the US EPA definition includes plant protection products and some veterinary medicines.
Fungicides are biocidal chemical compounds or biological organisms used to kill parasitic fungi or their spores. A fungistatic inhibits their growth. Fungi can cause serious damage in agriculture, resulting in critical losses of yield, quality, and profit. Fungicides are used both in agriculture and to fight fungal infections in animals. Chemicals used to control oomycetes, which are not fungi, are also referred to as fungicides, as oomycetes use the same mechanisms as fungi to infect plants.
Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that affects a wide range of plants. Powdery mildew diseases are caused by many different species of fungi in the order Erysiphales, with Podosphaera xanthii being the most commonly reported cause. Erysiphe cichoracearum was formerly reported to be the primary causal organism throughout most of the world. Powdery mildew is one of the easier plant diseases to identify, as its symptoms are quite distinctive. Infected plants display white powdery spots on the leaves and stems. The lower leaves are the most affected, but the mildew can appear on any above-ground part of the plant. As the disease progresses, the spots get larger and denser as large numbers of asexual spores are formed, and the mildew may spread up and down the length of the plant.
VG is a "V-series" nerve agent chemically similar to the better-known VX nerve agent. Tetram is the common Russian name for the substance. Amiton was the trade name for the substance when it was marketed as an insecticide by ICI in the mid-1950s.
Biopesticides, a contraction of 'biological pesticides', include several types of pest management intervention: through predatory, parasitic, or chemical relationships. The term has been associated historically with [biological control] – and by implication – the manipulation of living organisms. Regulatory positions can be influenced by public perceptions, thus:
Lead hydrogen arsenate, also called lead arsenate, acid lead arsenate or LA, chemical formula PbHAsO4, is an inorganic insecticide used primarily against the potato beetle. Lead arsenate was the most extensively used arsenical insecticide. Two principal formulations of lead arsenate were marketed: basic lead arsenate (Pb5OH(AsO4)3, CASN: 1327-31-7) and acid lead arsenate (PbHAsO4.
Diquat is the ISO common name for an organic dication that, as a salt with counterions such as bromide or chloride is used as a contact herbicide that produces desiccation and defoliation. Diquat is no longer approved for use in the European Union, although its registration in many other countries including the USA is still valid.
In agriculture and horticulture, seed treatment or seed dressing is a chemical, typically antimicrobial or fungicidal, with which seeds are treated prior to planting. Less frequently, insecticides are added. Seed treatments can be an environmentally more friendly way of using pesticides as the amounts used can be very small. It is usual to add colour to make treated seed less attractive to birds, and easier to see and clean up in the case of an accidental spillage. Specialist machinery is required to safely and efficiently apply the chemical to the seed. A seed coating is a thicker form of covering of seed and may contain fertiliser, growth promoters and or seed treatment as well as an inert carrier and a polymer outer shell. The term "seed dressing" is also used to refer to the process of removing chaff, weed seeds and straw from a seed stock.
Azoxystrobin is the ISO common name for an organic compound that is used as a pesticide. It is a broad spectrum systemic fungicide widely used in agriculture to protect crops from fungal diseases. It was first marketed in 1996 using the brand name Amistar and by 1999 it had been registered in 48 countries on more than 50 crops. In the year 2000 it was announced that it had been granted UK Millennium product status.
Insecticidal soap is used to control many plant insect pests. Soap has been used for more than 200 years as an insect control. Because insecticidal soap works on direct contact with pests via the disruption of cell membranes when the insect is penetrated with fatty acids, the insect's cells leak their contents causing the insect to dehydrate and die. Insecticidal soap is sprayed on plants until the entire plant is saturated because the insecticidal properties of the soap occurs when the solution is wet. Soaps have a low mammalian toxicity and are therefore considered safe to be used around children and pets, and may be used in organic farming.
Cyhalothrin is the ISO common name for an organic compound that, in specific isomeric forms, is used as a pesticide. It is a pyrethroid, a class of synthetic insecticides that mimic the structure and properties of the naturally occurring insecticide pyrethrin which is present in the flowers of Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium. Pyrethroids such as cyhalothrin are often preferred as an active ingredient in agricultural insecticides because they are more cost-effective and longer acting than natural pyrethrins. λ-and γ-cyhalothrin are now used to control insects and spider mites in crops including cotton, cereals, potatoes and vegetables.
Pirimiphos-methyl, marketed as Actellic, and Sybol is a phosphorothioate used as an insecticide. It was originally developed by Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., now Syngenta, at their Jealott's Hill site and first marketed in 1977, ten years after its discovery.
Tefluthrin is the ISO common name for an organic compound that is used as a pesticide. It is a pyrethroid, a class of synthetic insecticides that mimic the structure and properties of the naturally occurring insecticide pyrethrin which is present in the flowers of Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium. Pyrethroids such as tefluthrin are often preferred as active ingredients in agricultural insecticides because they are more cost-effective and longer acting than natural pyrethrins. It is effective against soil pests because it can move as a vapour without irreversibly binding to soil particles: in this respect it differs from most other pyrethroids.
Pyrazophos is an organic compound used as a fungicide and an insecticide.
Fenarimol, sold under the tradenames Bloc, Rimidin and Rubigan, is a fungicide which acts against rusts, blackspot and mildew fungi. It is used on ornamental plants, trees, lawns, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers and melons. It is mainly used to control powdery mildew. It works by inhibiting the fungus's biosynthesis of important steroid molecules.
Early twenty-first century pesticide research has focused on developing molecules that combine low use rates and that are more selective, safer, resistance-breaking and cost-effective. Obstacles include increasing pesticide resistance and an increasingly stringent regulatory environment.
Fluxapyroxad is a broad-spectrum pyrazole-carboxamide fungicide used on a large variety of commercial crops. It stunts fungus growth by inhibiting the succinate dehydrogenase (SQR) enzyme. Application of fluxapyroxad helps prevent many wilts and other fungal infections from taking hold. As with other systemic pesticides that have a long chemical half-life, there are concerns about keeping fluxapyroxad out of the groundwater, especially when combined with pyraclostrobin. There is also concern that some fungi may develop resistance to fluxapyroxad.
Tree injection, also known as trunk or stem injection, is a method of target precise application of pesticides, plant resistance activators, and fertilizers into the xylem vascular tissue of a tree with the purpose of protecting the tree from pests or nutrition for correction of nutrient deficiencies. This method largely relies on harnessing the tree's vascular system to translocate and distribute the active compounds into the wood, canopy and roots where protection or nutrition is needed. Tree injection is currently the most popular method for control of damaging insects, pathogens, and nematodes in landscape tree care. It has been developed primarily for use on large size trees and in proximity of urban areas where ground- and air-spray applications are impractical due to substantial drift-driven pesticide losses or not allowed due to potential human exposure. However, the prime driver of tree injection use has been a wide spread need for control of many invasive tree pathogens and insects pests. The most infamous examples are that of Ophiostoma fungi that cause Dutch Elm Disease (DED) and insect Emerald ash borer which have specific biologies that lead to severe internal damage of wood and thus tree death, and which make their management extremely difficult or inefficient with classical pesticide application methods. Trunk injection for tree protection is viewed as environmentally safer alternative for pesticide application since the compound is delivered within the tree, thus allowing for selective exposure to plant pests. In landscapes and urban zones trunk injection significantly reduces the non-target exposure of water, soil, air, and wildlife to pesticides and fertilizers. In the last 20 years, tree injection is gaining momentum with the development and availability of new, efficient injection devices and injectable and xylem mobile formulations of pesticides, biopesticides and nutrients. Further, a number of newly occurring and fast spreading invasive insect pests and diseases such as Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer (PSHB) Euwallacea sp., which vectors plant pathogenic fungus Fusarium euwallaceae, and Sudden Oak Death (SOD) caused by an Oomycete Phytophthora ramorum, establish the use of trunk injection as the most efficient tree protection technique in landscapes and urban forestry.
Cyproconazole is an agricultural fungicide of the class of azoles, used on cereal crops, coffee, sugar beet, fruit trees and grapes, on sod farms and golf courses and on wood as a preservative. It was introduced to the market by then Sandoz in 1994.
