Phytoremediation of pesticide wastes in soil.

Soils at agrochemical dealer sites often are contaminated with pesticide residues from decades of accidental and incidental spillage. We have determined that prairie grasses native to the Midwestern U.S.

Evaluation of microbial inoculation and vegetation to enhance the dissipation of atrazine and metolachlor in soil.

Four greenhouse studies were conducted to evaluate the effects of native prairie grasses and two pesticide-degrading bacteria to remediate atrazine and metolachlor in soils from agricultural dealerships (Alpha site soil, northwest Iowa, USA; Bravo site soil, central Iowa, USA). The Alpha soil contained a low population of atrazine-degrading microorganisms relative to the Bravo soil. Each soil freshly treated with atrazine or metolachlor was aged for a short or long period of time, respectively.

Fumigation toxicity of volatile natural and synthetic cyanohydrins to stored-product pests and activity as soil fumigants.

Insecticidal fumigation toxicity of natural and synthetic cyanohydrins was evaluated with four stored-product pests: the lesser grain borer, Rhyzopertha dominica (F), the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum Herbst, the saw-toothed grain beetle Oryzaephilus surinamensis L, the maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais (Motsch) and the house fly, Musca domestica L. The fumigation LC50 values were calculated by probit analysis. For house flies, all but one of the cyanohydrins tested were more potent than 1,3-dichloropropene (Telone).

Influence of microbial inoculation (Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP), the enzyme atrazine chlorohydrolase, and vegetation on the degradation of atrazine and metolachlor in soil.

The concentrations of atrazine in the freshly added soils and the soils that had been incubated for 50 days significantly decreased 1 day after the addition of the enzyme atrazine chlorohydrolase or the soil bacterium Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP as compared with those in the uninoculated soils. Atrazine chlorohydrolase or ADP had no effect on the degradation of metolachlor.