Effects of soil on the development, survival, and oviposition of Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae) mosquitoes.

Background: Water quality is known to influence the development and survival of larval mosquitoes, which affects mosquito-borne pathogen transmission as a function of the number of mosquitoes that reach adulthood and blood feed. Although water properties are known to affect mosquito development, few studies have investigated the link among soil properties, water quality, and mosquito development. Given the large number of ground-breeding mosquito species, this linkage is a potentially important factor to consider in mosquito ecology.

Global Adoption of Genetically Modified (GM) Crops: Challenges for the Public Sector.

Advances in biotechnology continue to drive the development of a wide range of insect-protected, herbicide-tolerant, stress-tolerant, and nutritionally enhanced genetically modified (GM) crops, yet societal and public policy considerations may slow their commercialization. Such restrictions may disproportionately affect developing countries, as well as smaller entrepreneurial and public sector initiatives. The 2014 IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry (San Francisco, CA, USA; August 2014) included a symposium on "Challenges Associated with Global Adoption of Agricultural Biotechnology" to review current obstacles in promoting GM crops.

Agrochemical spray drift; assessment and mitigation--a review.

During application of agrochemicals spray droplets can drift beyond the intended target to non-target receptors, including water, plants and animals. Factors affecting this spray drift include mode of application, droplet size, which can be modified by the nozzle types, formulation adjuvants, wind direction, wind speed, air stability, relative humidity, temperature and height of released spray relative to the crop canopy. The rate of fall of spray droplets depends upon the size of the droplets but is modified by entrainment in a mobile air mass and is also influenced by the rate of evaporation of the liquid constituting the aerosol.

Children's inhalation exposure to methamidophos from sprayed potato fields in Washington State: exploring the use of probabilistic modeling of meteorological data in exposure assessment.

We examined the significance of meteorology and postspray volatilization of methamidophos (an organophosphorus insecticide) in assessing potential inhalation risk to children in an agricultural community. We combined fluxes from sources and dispersion modeling with a range of possible local meteorology to create output to study the variability in potential community exposure as a result of changing temperature, wind speeds and wind directions. This work is based on an aerial spray drift study where air sampling measurements of methamidophos were made before, during and after a spray event were used to examine acute inhalation risk for children living in an Eastern Washington State community in close proximity (between 15 and 200 m) to sprayed potato fields.

Altered pesticide use on transgenic crops and the associated general impact from an environmental perspective.

The large-scale commercial cultivation of transgenic crops has undergone a steady increase since their introduction 10 years ago. Most of these crops bear introduced traits that are of agronomic importance, such as herbicide or insect resistance. These traits are likely to impact upon the use of pesticides on these crops, as well as the pesticide market as a whole.

Disposal and degradation of pesticide waste.

Generation of pesticide waste is inevitable during every agricultural operation from storage to use and equipment cleanup. Large-scale pesticide manufacturers can afford sophisticated recovery, treatment, and cleanup techniques. Small-scale pesticide users, for example, single farms or small application businesses, struggle with both past waste problems, including contaminated soils, and disposal of unused product and equipment rinsewater.

Imidacloprid residues in Willapa Bay (Washington State) water and sediment following application for control of burrowing shrimp.

Pesticides have been used in the Willapa Bay estuary in western Washington State to control the exotic invasive plant species Spartina alterniflora (cordgrass) and the native species of burrowing shrimp (Callianassa sp.; Upogebia sp.) that affect oyster production.

WEB resources for pesticide toxicology, environmental chemistry, and policy: a utilitarian perspective.

Information about pesticides has grown exponentially over the last four decades and is marked by a diversity of sources including government, universities, environmental advocates, and industry. The internet has made access to this unprecedented amount of information faster than ever, but judging the validity and usefulness of the information is problematic. To avoid turning this discussion of web resources for pesticide information into a narrative about a personal 'top ten' list, a utilitarian perspective of resources useful to a research, educator, and risk communicator is elucidated.