Pesticide formulation
Constituents of pesticides
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Formulation types are categorised into two-letter international formulation codes: (e.g. GR: granules), which must be used when registering a new pesticide product. Croplife maintains this list, which in the 7th update (2017) contains 65 formulation codes and 29 codes which are no longer used.
Household formulations are often "low-concentrate solutions", with pesticides pre-diluted, often to 1% active ingredient or less, and at much steeper prices compared to more concentrated commercial formulations.
Water-miscible formulations
By far the most frequently used products are formulations for mixing with water then applying as sprays. Water miscible formulation types include:
- EC Emulsifiable concentrate
- SL Soluble (liquid) concentrate
- SP Soluble powder
- WP Wettable powder
Newer formulations with less use of hazardous solvents include:
- SC Suspension concentrate
- CS Capsule suspensions
- WG Water dispersible granules
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Other formulations
Other common formulations include granules (GR) and dusts (DP), although for improved safety the latter have been replaced by microgranules (MG e.g. for rice farmers in Japan). Specialist formulations are available for ultra-low volume spraying, fogging, fumigation, etc. Very occasionally, some pesticides (e.g. malathion) may be sold as technical material (TC - which is mostly AI, but also contains small quantities of, usually non-active, by-products of the manufacturing process; TGAC - "technical grade active constituent" means the same.).
A particularly efficient form of pesticide dose transfer is seed treatment and specific formulations have been developed for this purpose. A number of pesticide bait formulations are available for rodent pest control, etc.