Insecticides

Rotenone Insecticides

Rotenone is removed from the roots of derris plants in Asia and cube plants in South America. This common garden insecticide is harmless to plants, highly toxic to fish and many insects, reasonably toxic to mammals and leaves no damaging residue on vegetable crops. It acts together a contact and stomach poison to insects. It is slow acting and in the presence of sun and air its efficiency is lost within a week after function. Wear a mask during use because rotenone can aggravate the respiratory tract. Rotenone dusts and sprays have been used for years to manage aphids, certain beetles and caterpillars on plants as well as fleas and lice on animals.

Production: Rotenoids, the rotenone-related materials, have been used as crop insecticides for long when they were functional to plants to control leaf-eating caterpillars. Derris root has long been used as a fish toxic. Rotenone is sold in dispersible powder, emulsifiable concentrate, and wettable powder formulations. Rotenone products are accepted for use against aphids on flowers, ornamentals, protected crops, soft fruit, top fruit and vegetables and against sawflies in gooseberries and slug sawflies in pears and roses. Very little rotenone is used in profitable fruit and vegetable production. Other target organisms of rotenone include maggots, bagworms, codling moths, Japanese beetles, leaf hoppers, Mexican bean beetles, cabbage worms, stinkbugs, flea beetles, and vegetable weevils

Use of rotenone: The use of rotenone is permitted as an insecticide. Rotenone is classified as a moderately hazardous. One factor in this wide variation may be the differences in the plant extracts used. The keen oral toxicity of rotenone is moderate for mammals but there is a wide variation between species. It is less poisonous for the mouse and hamster than for the rat. The pig seems to be especially sensitive. Current studies have shown that in rats, rotenone is more toxic for females than males. It is highly irritating to the skin in rabbits and to the eyes. In rats and dogs exposed to rotenone in dust form, the inhalation serious dose was uniformly smaller than the oral fatal amount. Rotenone is supposed to be moderately toxic to humans with an oral lethal dose. Human victims are rare, perhaps because rotenone is usually sold in low concentrations.

Insecticides