Pesticides
A pesticide is any chemical which is used to control pests. The term ‘pests’ may refer to any form of insects, plant diseases, weeds,or any soil organisms ie nematodes, etc. Therefore, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, regardless synthetically or biologically derived are all classified as pesticides.
Insecticides
Insecticide is one of the pesticides used in the control of insects. An insecticide may kill the insect it coming in contact with the chemical or may have to be swallowed by the target pest in order to be effective.
Insecticides can be broad-spectrum or target specific. For broad-spectrum insecticides, it will be kill a wide range of insects, regardless target or non-target pest. This is the most widely used form of insecticde today. For target specific insecticides, only the target pest will be affected. Usually this type of target specific insecticides are insects growth regulators, hormones or chitin inhibitors
Miticides/ Acaricides
Miticides are very similar in action to insecticides and often the same pesticide kills both insects and mites.
Fungicides
Most fungicides are contact based and target a broad-spectrum of fungi and bacterium diseases. Some can be systemic and will move throughout the plant tissue as a protectant to the plant and killing target disease that affect plant tissues.
Fungicide can be used as a preventive or curative pesticide. Fungicides that are preventive usually will inhibit or prevent fungal growth and has to be applied at designated interval for continued protection from infection. Curative fungicides are also known as eradicant, which cure plants of target disease. This type of fungicide is used when preventive measures fails or are not available.
Herbicides
Herbicides are used to control weeds. This type of pesticide is used to kill or slow the growth of some plants, rather than to protect them. Herbicides can be applied as pre-planting treatment to eradicate planting areas from unwanted weeds or used as a postemergent treatment for weeds that appeared after crops has been planted.
There are 2 types of herbicides:
Non-Selective
Non-Selective heribicides are toxic to all plants. These are often used when no plants are wanted in an area.
Selective
Selective herbicides kill selected weeds with no injury to other plants. Usually selective types will kill either broadleaved plants or grassy plants. These are useful for lawns, golf courses or in areas with desirable trees.
Biological Pesticides
Biological pesticides means the use of ‘desirable’ or beneficial microorganisms to control the destruction caused by ‘undersitable’ pathogens or insects. This natural approach to pest and disease management is rapidly becoming a viable option to the conventional chemical appraoch, particularly in the light of exciting, new developments in this field. Biological pesticides is now available in the form of insecticides, fungicides and nematicides.