The

biological activity In pharmacology, biological activity or pharmacological activity describes the beneficial or adverse effects of a drug on living matter. When a drug is a complex chemical mixture, this activity is exerted by the substance's active ingredient or ...

of a pesticide, be it chemical or biological in nature, is determined by its

active ingredient An active ingredient is any ingredient that provides biologically active or other direct effect in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease or to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or animals. T ...

(AI - also called the ''active substance'').

Pesticide 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 lampri ...

products very rarely consist of pure technical material. The AI is usually formulated with other materials and this is the product as sold, but it may be further diluted in use. Formulations improves the properties of a chemical for handling, storage, application and may substantially influence effectiveness and safety. Formulation terminology follows a 2-letter convention: (''e.g.'' GR: granules) listed by

CropLife International CropLife International is an international trade association of agrochemical companies founded in 2001. It was previously known as ''Global Crop Protection Federation'' and started out as ''International Group of National Associations of Manufactu ...

(formerly GIFAP then GCPF) in the ''Catalogue of Pesticide Formulation Types'' (Monograph 2); see
download page
Some manufacturers do not follow these industry standards, which can cause confusion for users.

Water-miscible formulations

By far the most frequently used products are formulations for mixing with water then applying as sprays. Water miscible, older formulations include: * EC Emulsifiable concentrate * WP

Wettable powder A wettable powder (WP) is an insecticide or other pesticide formulation consisting of the active ingredient in a finely ground state combined with wetting agents and sometimes bulking agents. Wettable powders are designed to be applied as a dil ...

* SL Soluble (liquid) concentrate * SP Soluble powder Newer, non-powdery formulations with reduced or no use of hazardous solvents and improved stability include: * SC Suspension concentrate * CS Capsule suspensions * WG Water dispersible granules

Other formulations

Other common formulations include granules (GR) and dusts (DP), although for improved safety the latter have been replaced by microgranules (MG ''e.g''. for

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

farmers in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

). Specialist formulations are available for

ultra-low volume Ultra-low volume (ULV) application of pesticides has been defined as spraying at Volume Application Rate(VAR) of less than 5 L/ha for field crops or less than 50 L/ha for tree/bush crops. VARs of 0.25 – 2 L/ha are typical for aerial ULV appl ...

spraying, fogging, fumigation, ''etc''. Very occasionally, some pesticides (''e.g''. malathion) may be sold as technical material (TC - which is mostly AI, but also contains small quantities of, usually non-active, by-products of the manufacturing process). A particularly efficient form of pesticide dose transfer is

seed treatment In agriculture and horticulture, a seed treatment is any additional material added to the seed. By the amount of material added, it can be divided into: * A seed dressing, typically containing a "protectant" ( pesticide) applied to the seed and p ...

and specific formulations have been developed for this purpose. A number of pesticide bait formulations are available for

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...

pest control, ''etc''. In reality many formulation codes are used: AB, AE, AL, AP, BB, BR, CB, CF, CG, CL, CP, CS, DC, DL, DP, DS, DT, EC, ED, EG, EO, ES, EW, FD, FG, FK, FP, FR, FS, FT, FU, FW, GA, GB, GE, GF, GG, GL, GP, GR, GS, GW, HN, KK, KL, KN, KP, LA, LS, LV, MC, ME, MG, MV, OD, OF, OL, OP, PA, PB, PC, PO, PR, PS, RB, SA, SB, SC, SD, SE, SG, SL, SO, SP, SS, ST, SU, TB, TC, TK, TP, UL, VP, WG, WP, WS, WT, XX, ZC, ZE and ZW.Formulation Codes
from dropdata.org, run by iparc.org.uk, The International Pesticide Application Research Consortium (IPARC), Department of Biology, Imperial College, London

Water-miscible formulations

Other formulations

See also

References

Further reading