Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampricide. 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. As an example, the fungus Alternaria solani is used to combat the aquatic weed Salvinia.
Cypermethrin (CP) is a synthetic pyrethroid used as an insecticide in large-scale commercial agricultural applications as well as in consumer products for domestic purposes. It behaves as a fast-acting neurotoxin in insects. It is easily degraded on soil and plants but can be effective for weeks when applied to indoor inert surfaces. Exposure to sunlight, water and oxygen will accelerate its decomposition. Cypermethrin is highly toxic to fish, bees and aquatic insects, according to the National Pesticides Telecommunications Network (NPTN). It is found in many household ant and cockroach killers, including Raid, Ortho, Combat, ant chalk, and some products of Baygon in Southeast Asia.
A pesticide poisoning occurs when pesticides, chemicals intended to control a pest, affect non-target organisms such as humans, wildlife, plant, or bees. There are three types of pesticide poisoning. The first of the three is a single and short-term very high level of exposure which can be experienced by individuals who commit suicide, as well as pesticide formulators. Type two poisoning is long-term high-level exposure, which can occur in pesticide formulators and manufacturers. The third type of poisoning is a long-term low-level exposure, which individuals are exposed to from sources such as pesticide residues in food as well as contact with pesticide residues in the air, water, soil, sediment, food materials, plants and animals.
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).
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) is a United States federal law that set up the basic U.S. system of pesticide regulation to protect applicators, consumers, and the environment. It is administered and regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the appropriate environmental agencies of the respective states. FIFRA has undergone several important amendments since its inception. A significant revision in 1972 by the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act (FEPCA) and several others have expanded EPA's present authority to oversee the sales and use of pesticides with emphasis on the preservation of human health and protection of the environment by "(1) strengthening the registration process by shifting the burden of proof to the chemical manufacturer, (2) enforcing compliance against banned and unregistered products, and (3) promulgating the regulatory framework missing from the original law".
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.
Methoprene is a juvenile hormone (JH) analog which acts as a growth regulator when used as an insecticide. It is an amber-colored liquid with a faint fruity odor.
Resmethrin is a pyrethroid insecticide with many uses, including control of the adult mosquito population.
Fenoxycarb is a carbamate insect growth regulator. It has a low toxicity for bees, birds, and humans, but is toxic to fish. The oral LD50 for rats is greater than 16,800 milligrams per kilogram (0.269 oz/lb).
The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), or H.R.1627, was passed unanimously by Congress in 1996 and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 3, 1996. The FQPA standardized the way the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would manage the use of pesticides and amended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act. It mandated a health-based standard for pesticides used in foods, provided special protections for babies and infants, streamlined the approval of safe pesticides, established incentives for the creation of safer pesticides, and required that pesticide registrations remain current.
Acephate is an organophosphate foliar and soil insecticide of moderate persistence with residual systemic activity of about 10–15 days at the recommended use rate. It is used primarily for control of aphids, including resistant species, in vegetables and in horticulture. It also controls leaf miners, caterpillars, sawflies, thrips, and spider mites in the previously stated crops as well as turf, and forestry. By direct application to mounds, it is effective in destroying imported fire ants.
Clothianidin is an insecticide developed by Takeda Chemical Industries and Bayer AG. Similar to thiamethoxam and imidacloprid, it is a neonicotinoid. Neonicotinoids are a class of insecticides that are chemically similar to nicotine, which has been used as a pesticide since the late 1700s. Clothianidin and other neonicotinoids act on the central nervous system of insects as an agonist of nAChR, the same receptor as acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter that stimulates and activating post-synaptic acetylcholine receptors but not inhibiting AChE. Clothianidin and other neonicotinoids were developed to last longer than nicotine, which is more toxic and which breaks down too quickly in the environment. However, studies published in 2012 show that neonicotinoid dust released at planting time may persist in nearby fields for several years and be taken up into non-target plants, which are then foraged by bees and other insects.
Procymidone is a pesticide. It is often used for killing unwanted ferns and nettles, and as a dicarboximide fungicide for killing fungi, for example as seed dressing, pre-harvest spray or post-harvest dip of lupins, grapes, stone fruit, strawberries. It is a known endocrine disruptor which interferes with the sexual differention of male rats. It is considered to be a poison.
Fluvalinate is a synthetic pyrethroid chemical compound contained as an active agent in the products Apistan, Klartan, and Minadox, that is an acaricide, commonly used to control Varroa mites in honey bee colonies, infestations that constitute a significant disease of such insects.
Pesticides in the United States are used predominantly by the agricultural sector, but approximately a quarter of them are used in houses, yards, parks, golf courses, and swimming pools.
Mevinphos is an organophosphate insecticide that acts as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor to control insects in a wide range of crops. It is most commonly used for the control of chewing and sucking insects, as well as spider mites. Common synonym names are duraphos, fosdrin, menite, mevinfos, mevinox, phosdrin, and phosdrine. It is not allowed in the EU anymore.
Carbosulfan is an organic compound adherent to the carbamate class. At normal conditions, it is brown viscous liquid. It is not very stable; it decomposes slowly at room temperature. Its solubility in water is low but it is miscible with xylene, hexane, chloroform, dichloromethane, methanol and acetone. Carbosulfan is used as an insecticide. The European Union banned use of carbosulfan in 2007.
Formetanate is an insecticide and acaricide. It is used on alfalfa grown for seed and on some fruits, including citrus, pome, and stone fruits.
Hydroprene is an insect growth regulator used as an insecticide. It is used against cockroaches, beetles, and moths. Products using hydroprene include Gencor, Gentrol, and Raid Max Sterilizer Discs. Hydropene is a synthetic juvenile hormone mimic, disrupting insect larval development like molting.
Nereistoxin is a natural product identified in 1962 as the toxic organic compound N,N-dimethyl-1,2-dithiolan-4-amine. It had first been isolated in 1934 from the marine annelid Lumbriconereis heteropoda and acts by blocking the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. Researchers at Takeda in Japan investigated it as a possible insecticide. They subsequently developed a number of derivatives that were commercialised, including those with the ISO common names bensultap, cartap, thiocyclam and thiosultap.
