Pesticides (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what pesticides are, what types of pesticides exist and why they are dangerous. Also, organic pesticides.

What are pesticides?

Pesticides, pesticides or biocides are types of chemical compounds intended to repel, attract, destroy, prevent or combat any undesirable species of plants or animals.

They are used during the stages of production, storage, transportation and distribution of foods of agricultural origin, whether food for humans or animals. They are also included in pesticides the substances that are administered to livestock animals to rid them of ectoparasites (parasites that live on the outside of the body of animals).

The term pesticide does not include various substances used daily in the agricultural industry, such as different fertilizers, nutrients, additives and animal medications.

Yes they are considered pesticides desiccants, defoliating agents (substances that cause plant leaves to fall off), products that reduce the density of fruits, substances that inhibit germination, substances that are added to foods during harvest, storage and transportation to slow their deterioration, and products that regulate plant growth. Pesticide substances are used to combat the most frequent pests of food plant species, such as insects, fungi, bacteria, mollusks, small mammals, birds and even other plant species.

Without necessarily being poisons, these substances can be harmful to both humans and other third species who inadvertently consume them in food or its derived products.

From early times, pesticides of various types were used in the modern agricultural industry. A real explosion of pesticides occurred in the 1980s which allowed the increase in world agricultural production to revolutionary levels.

Relatively inexpensive and very effective, they were even used as a preventive measure, without waiting for signs of some type of contamination, which led to a catastrophic scenario.

The misuse of pesticides on the one hand caused significant ecological damage that led to the banning of many of them (such as DDT, dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane). On the other hand, it led to the emergence of resistant pests or new distinct agricultural pests, such as certain species of mites.

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Types of pesticides

There are various types of pesticides, generally designed to attack a specific type of pest, whether animal, microbial or plant. Based on this purpose, we can classify them into:

Algaecides They delay the growth or prevent the appearance of algae.
Antimicrobials They destroy plant germs and microbes, especially bacteria and viruses.
Desiccants They cause water loss from certain plant tissues, thus drying out plant pests.
Defoliants They cause certain plant species to lose their leaves, thus preventing photosynthesis.
Insect bombs They destroy insects. They are known in English as “foggers” because they are applied from airplanes or drones and create a kind of fog (fog) about the crop.
Herbicides They kill herbs or unwanted plant species that proliferate in crop areas, competing with agricultural species.
Molluscicides They cause the desiccation of slugs and other mollusks.
Insect growth regulators They inhibit certain steps in the reproductive circuit of insects.
Rodenticides They kill mice, rats and other similar rodents.
Antifungals or fungicides They prevent the appearance of fungi or eliminate them from fruits and plants.
Repellents They cover protected species and give them an unpleasant smell and taste that keeps common pests away.
Synergistic pesticides They enhance and maximize the effectiveness of other pesticides.

Depending on the magnitude of the damage they can cause to humans, pesticides can also be classified into:

Low danger They do not involve considerable harm when inhaled, ingested or when they come into contact with the skin.
Toxic They cause considerable damage when inhaled, ingested or come into contact with the skin.
Harmful They involve serious damage that can leave chronic consequences or even cause death when incorporated into the human body through the pathways described in the previous points.
Extremely toxic They involve very serious, acute damage that can cause death in a short time.

Risks of pesticides

pesticide pesticide danger — Pesticides can harm benign species and even humans.

The use of these pesticide products involves certain risks. Among them, we can list the following:

Deterioration of benign species. Due to their indiscriminate use across large areas of cultivation, pesticides can cause the death of innocuous or even benign species for the crop, causing enormous ecological damage to the environment and, sometimes, even accidentally encouraging the emergence of new pests. due to the absence of predators
Permanent damage to the human organism. Traces of these products, which can sometimes be found in food, in the water of rivers and lakes (or water from contaminated underground reservoirs), or even inhaled directly from the air, can cause different types of harm to people. Depending on the damage caused, pesticides can be:
- Carcinogenic. They cause different types of cancer and/or leukemia.
- Neurotoxic. They cause direct damage to the brain or central nervous system.
- Teratogens. They cause deformities in fetuses and damage to growing babies, and also damage people's reproductive systems.
- Asphyxiating They cause damage to the respiratory system and can induce suffocation or lung failure.
Food contamination. Given their abundant use throughout different stages of the production chain, it is possible that foods intended for human or animal consumption contain traces of varying concentrations of these toxic products.

Pesticides and pesticides

The terms pesticides and pesticides are synonyms in Spanish. The first comes from “plague” and the second from “pestilence”. The word “pest” implies an invasion of harmful organisms. The word “plague” refers to a contagious disease. Both terms, for agricultural purposes, are totally the same.

Pesticides and fertilizers

pesticide pesticide fertilizer — Fertilizers are additives that promote plant growth.

Unlike pesticides, Fertilizers are substances intended to improve or enhance growth and the production of agricultural plant species. They usually consist of substances added to soil or water that provide plants with a plus of nutrients to accelerate their growth, make up for nutrient deficiencies in the soil or boost fruit production.

organic pesticides

Organic pesticides or biopesticides are those that are extracted from natural sources like other plants, or abundant minerals, that is, they do not come from a laboratory. They have a much lower impact on the ecosystem, although they do not necessarily carry fewer risks for human health, which is why they also require scrupulous management.

This type of pesticides usually has a more limited effect slower action and fewer residual presence problems, which is why they are often not chosen instead of traditional pesticides.

Furthermore, instead of eradicating pest populations, they tend to keep them under control, within minimally acceptable parameters, causing much less damage to the ecological balance of the species.

Some of these biopesticides They may be of microbial origin and, sometimes, they are simply predatory species of pests, which are responsible for keeping their growth under control, without putting other benign species at risk.

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