Insecticides are substances used to kill insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against insect eggs and larvae, respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and by consumers. Insecticides are claimed to be a major factor behind the increase in the 20th-century's agricultural productivity. Nearly all insecticides have the potential to significantly alter ecosystems; many are toxic to humans and/or animals; some become concentrated as they spread along the food chain.
Pyrethrum was a genus of several Old World plants now classified as Chrysanthemum or Tanacetum which are cultivated as ornamentals for their showy flower heads. Pyrethrum continues to be used as a common name for plants formerly included in the genus Pyrethrum. Pyrethrum is also the name of a natural insecticide made from the dried flower heads of Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium and Chrysanthemum coccineum. Its active ingredient are pyrethrins.
The pyrethrins are a class of organic compounds normally derived from Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium that have potent insecticidal activity by targeting the nervous systems of insects. Pyrethrin naturally occurs in chrysanthemum flowers and is often considered an organic insecticide when it is not combined with piperonyl butoxide or other synthetic adjuvants. Their insecticidal and insect-repellent properties have been known and used for thousands of years.
Fenobucarb is a carbamate insecticide, also widely known as BPMC. A pale yellow or pale red liquid, insoluble in water; used as an agricultural insecticide, especially for control of Hemipteran pests, on rice and cotton and moderately toxic for humans.
Carbaryl is a chemical in the carbamate family used chiefly as an insecticide. It is a white crystalline solid previously sold under the brand name Sevin, which was a trademark of the Bayer Company. The Sevin trademark has since been acquired by GardenTech, which has eliminated carbaryl from most Sevin formulations. Union Carbide discovered carbaryl and introduced it commercially in 1958. Bayer purchased Aventis CropScience in 2002, a company that included Union Carbide pesticide operations. Carbaryl was the third-most-used insecticide in the United States for home gardens, commercial agriculture, and forestry and rangeland protection. As a veterinary drug, it is known as carbaril (INN).
Isoxathion is a molecular chemical with the molecular formula C13H16NO4PS. It is an insecticide, specifically an isoxazole organothiophosphate insecticide.
A mosquito net is a type of meshed curtain that is circumferentially draped over a bed or a sleeping area, to offer the sleeper barrier protection against bites and stings from mosquitos, flies, and other pest insects, and thus against the diseases they may carry. Examples of such preventable insect-borne diseases include malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, zika virus and various forms of encephalitis, including the West Nile virus.
Tetramethrin is a potent synthetic insecticide in the pyrethroid family. It is a white crystalline solid with a melting point of 65-80 °C. The commercial product is a mixture of stereoisomers.
Deltamethrin is a pyrethroid ester insecticide. Deltamethrin plays a key role in controlling malaria vectors, and is used in the manufacture of long-lasting insecticidal mosquito nets; however, resistance of mosquitos and bed bugs to deltamethrin is becoming widespread.
Neonicotinoids are a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically similar to nicotine. In the 1980s Shell and in the 1990s Bayer started work on their development. The neonicotinoid family includes acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, nitenpyram, nithiazine, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam. Imidacloprid has been the most widely used insecticide in the world from 1999 through at least 2018. Compared to organophosphate and carbamate insecticides, neonicotinoids are less toxic to birds and mammals than insects.
Paraoxon is a parasympathomimetic which acts as an cholinesterase inhibitor. It is an organophosphate oxon, and the active metabolite of the insecticide parathion. It is also used as an ophthalmological drug against glaucoma. Paraoxon is one of the most potent acetylcholinesterase-inhibiting insecticides available, around 70% as potent as the nerve agent sarin, and so is now rarely used as an insecticide due to the risk of poisoning to humans and other animals. Paraoxon has been used by scientists to study acute and chronic effects of organophosphate intoxication. It is easily absorbed through skin, and was allegedly used as an assassination weapon by the apartheid-era South African chemical weapons program Project Coast.
Indoxacarb is an oxadiazine pesticide developed by DuPont that acts against lepidopteran larvae. It is marketed under the names Indoxacarb Technical Insecticide, Steward Insecticide and Avaunt Insecticide. It is also used as the active ingredient in Syngenta line of commercial pesticides: Advion and Arilon.
Pyriprole is for veterinary use on dogs against external parasites such as fleas and ticks.
Cyphenothrin is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide. It is effective against cockroaches that have developed resistance to organophosphorous and carbamate insecticides.
Trichloronate is a highly toxic organophosphate insecticide. It is used against vegetable fly larvae and soil pests.
Ryanoids are a class of insecticides which share the same mechanism of action as the alkaloid ryanodine. Ryanodine is a naturally occurring insecticide isolated from Ryania speciosa.
Cyantraniliprole is an insecticide of the ryanoid class, specifically a diamide insecticide. It is approved for use in the United States, Canada, China, and India. Because of its uncommon mechanism of action as a ryanoid, it has activity against pests such as Diaphorina citri that have developed resistance to other classes of insecticides. Cyantraniliprole is highly toxic to bees, which resulted in registration of its use as a pesticide being delayed in the USA.
Schradan, named after Gerhard Schrader, is an obsolete organophosphate insecticide. Schradan itself is a weak cholinesterase inhibitor and requires metabolic activation to become active.
Difluorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DFDT) is a chemical compound. Its composition is the same as that of the insecticide DDT, except that two of DDT's chlorine atoms are replaced by two fluorine atoms.
R-16661 is an extremely toxic organophosphate insecticide. With an oral LD50 of 0.1 mg/kg in mice and rats, R-16661 is about 10 times more toxic than aldicarb, the most toxic carbamate insecticide.
