Pesticide application

A manual backpack-type sprayer
Space treatment against mosquitoes using a thermal fogger
Grubbs Vocational College students spraying Irish potatoes

Pesticide application is the practical way in which pesticides (including herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, or nematode control agents) are delivered to their biological targets (e.g. pest organism, crop or other plant). Public concern about the use of pesticides has highlighted the need to make this process as efficient as possible, in order to minimise their release into the environment and human exposure (including operators, bystanders and consumers of produce).[1] The practice of pest management by the rational application of pesticides is supremely multi-disciplinary, combining many aspects of biology and chemistry with: agronomy, engineering, meteorology, socio-economics and public health,[2] together with newer disciplines such as biotechnology and information science.

Efficacy can be related to the quality of pesticide application, with small droplets, such as aerosols often improving performance.[3]

  1. ^ Bateman, R.P. (2003) Rational Pesticide Use: spatially and temporally targeted application of specific products. In: Optimising Pesticide Use Ed. M. Wilson. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, UK. pp. 129-157
  2. ^ Matthews GA, Bateman R, Miller P (2014) Pesticide Application Methods 4th Edition Wiley, Chichester, UK 517 pp.
  3. ^ "dropdata.org". dropdata.org. Archived from the original on 2015-08-01. Retrieved 2011-01-05.[better source needed]