Pesticides and Pest Control

Malathion is an organophosphate insecticide. It interferes with the nervous system by blocking an enzyme acetyl cholinesterase that normally acts as an off switch by ending the signal. Without the enzyme, the nerve keeps firing and eventually the nervous system fails. Malathion is used both in agricultural and residential settings.

Fumigants are volatile and poisonous substances used to kill insects, nematodes that damage stored foods or seeds, human dwellings, clothing, and nursery stock. Ethylene dichloride is used to treat open storage areas and as soil fumigants. It is a low-pressure compound which diffuses more slowly.

Endosulfan is a broad-spectrum organochlorine insecticide used to control a variety of insects on crops. It falls under the general category of pesticides.

Paul Muller also known as Pauly Mueller was a Swiss chemist who received the 1948 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine for his 1939 discovery of insecticidal qualities and use of DDT in the control of vector diseases, such as malaria and yellow fever.

2,4-D is one of the more useful herbicides. This herbicide is selective for broad leaf weeds. This makes it useful to control such weeds as dandelions, plantains, knotweed, pigweed, and many others. It is a systemic herbicide, which means that it is absorbed into the plant tissue and transported throughout the plant, including into the root system.

Pyrethroids are a class of synthetic pesticides used widely in home insect - control products, including flea bombs, roach sprays, ant bait, flea - and - tick pet shampoos, and lice shampoos. Examples of pyrethroid pesticides include: cypermethrin, permethrin, deltamethrin, bifenthrin, and cyfluthrin.

Propoxur is a nonfood carbamate insecticide, marketed under the registered trademark name 'Baygon'.  It is used to control cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes and lawn and turf insects.

Malathion is an organophosphate insecticide that has been widely utilized in public health programs, including antimalarial efforts, to control mosquito populations.

Aldrin is a pesticide used to control soil insects such as termites, corn rootworm, wireworms, rice water weevil and grasshoppers. It has been widely used to protect crops such as corn and potatoe and has been effective to protect wooden structures from termites.

2,4-D (2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) is a systemic herbicide that affects the specifically acts on the dicot weeds. It is used in the crop field of cereals to wipe out the weeds without affecting the monocot cereals. 

Allethrin is a synthetic pyrenoid used as an insecticide. These were made in 1949 and their chemical structure bears similarity to the natural pyrenoids obtained from the chrysanthemum plants. These are used to kill the flying and crawling insects in homes and workplaces.

Most synthetic insecticides, such as organophosphates and carbamates, function by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase, which disrupts the normal transmission of nerve impulses in the target pest's nervous system.

Auxins are toxic to plants in large concentrations; they are most toxic to dicots and less so to monocots. Because of this property, synthetic auxin herbicides, including 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, have been developed and used for weed control. Dioxins are environmental pollutants. They belong to the so-called dirty dozen - a group of dangerous chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Dioxins are of concern because of their highly toxic potential. Experiments have shown they affect a number of organs and systems.
Once dioxins enter the body, they last a long time because of their chemical stability and their ability to be absorbed by fat tissue, where they are then stored in the body. Their half-life in the body is estimated to be 7 to 11 years. In the environment, dioxins tend to accumulate in the food chain. The higher an animal is in the food chain, the higher the concentration of dioxins.
The chemical name for dioxin is: 2, 3, 7, 8 - tetrachlorodibenzo para dioxin (TCDD). The name "dioxins" is often used for the family of structurally and chemically related polychlorinated dibenzo para dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs). Dioxins are mainly by-products of industrial processes but can also result from natural processes, such as volcanic eruptions and forest fires. Dioxins are unwanted by products of a wide range of manufacturing processes including smelting, chlorine bleaching of paper pulp and the manufacturing of some herbicides and pesticides.

Pesticides are applied to the soil to manage the weeds. The length of the time that the pesticide remains active in soil is referred to as "soil persistence". Though desirable in the season of application, its persistence in the soils may affect the crop growth and yield. Benzene Hexachloride(BHC) is a chemical compound with several stereoisomers of which one is an insecticide called Lindane and the by-product is β-hexachlorocyclohexane- the pesticide. This pesticide which was used widely to protect cotton plants during 1960 and 1970's is banned as it has high levels of soil persistence and is neurotoxic for the animals.