Tebuthiuron is a nonselective broad spectrum
herbicide of the
urea
Urea, also called carbamide (because it is a diamide of carbonic acid), is an organic compound with chemical formula . This amide has two Amine, amino groups (–) joined by a carbonyl functional group (–C(=O)–). It is thus the simplest am ...
class. It is used to control weeds, woody and herbaceous plants, and sugar cane.
It is absorbed by the roots and transported to the leaves, where it inhibits
photosynthesis
Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabo ...
.
The ingredient was discovered by
Air Products and Chemicals, but was registered by
Elanco in the United States in 1974, and later sold to
Dow AgroSciences.
Environmental impacts
The
Environmental Protection Agency considers tebuthiuron to have a great potential for
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...
contamination, due to its high water
solubility
In chemistry, solubility is the ability of a chemical substance, substance, the solute, to form a solution (chemistry), solution with another substance, the solvent. Insolubility is the opposite property, the inability of the solute to form su ...
, low
adsorption to soil particles, and high persistence in soil (its soil
half-life Half-life is a mathematical and scientific description of exponential or gradual decay.
Half-life, half life or halflife may also refer to:
Film
* Half-Life (film), ''Half-Life'' (film), a 2008 independent film by Jennifer Phang
* ''Half Life: ...
is 360 days).
In Europe, tebuthiuron has been banned since November 2002.
Application
Tebuthiuron is used agriculturally in Australia and the United States, usually
formulated as granules, pellets or a wettable powder.
Pellets can be applied by hand (e.g. onto a clump of regrowth or along a fenceline), and by aircraft or ground equipment.
It can be applied any time of year, and once applied remains effective for several years. Tebuthiuron (as a 20% pellet) is applied at 0.5-2 g/m
2, equating to 0.1-0.4 g/m
2 of active ingredient.
The
HRAC classification for tebuthiuron is a
Group C (Australia) or
Group 5 (numeric), based on its mode of action.
Vandalism
In 2010, tebuthiuron in the form of Dow AgroSciences Spike 80DF was deliberately used in an act of vandalism to poison the live oak trees at
Toomer's Corner on the Auburn University campus following the 2010
Iron Bowl.
The lone perpetrator, a University of Alabama fan, was charged with first-degree criminal mischief and kailed on a $50,000 bond. Remediation involved removing about 1,780 tons of contaminated material.
In 2021, Arthur and Amelia Bond, wealthy summer residents of
Camden, Maine poisoned their neighbor's oak trees with tebuthiuron to obtain a better view of Camden Harbor. They paid over $200,000 in fines to address illegal pesticide use and environmental contamination, and $1.5 million to settle with their neighbor.
Tradenames
Tebuthiuron has been sold as "Tebuthiuron", "Brush", "Bullet", "Graslan", "Herbic", "Outlaw", "Perflan", "Reclaim", "Spike" and "Tebulex".
References
External links
*
Dow AgroSciences MSDS on Spike 80DF
{{Herbicides
Herbicides
Thiadiazoles
Ureas
Tert-butyl compounds
Group 5 herbicides