Pesticide facts for kids

A specially-designed airplane spraying pesticides over a field

A pesticide is a chemical used to kill or control unwanted living things. These unwanted organisms are called pests. Pests can be insects, tiny microbes that harm plants, or other things that cause problems for humans.

Many pesticides are poisonous. This means they can be bad for the environment and even for people, not just the pests they are meant to kill.

What Are the Main Types of Pesticides?

Different types of pesticides are used to get rid of specific pests.

• Herbicides are chemicals that kill unwanted plants, often called weeds.
• Insecticides are used to kill insects that eat plants and crops.
• Fungicides are used to kill harmful fungi that can damage plants.

How Do Pesticides Affect Health and the Environment?

Pesticides are designed to kill pests. However, many of them can also be harmful to human health. They can pollute water sources like rivers, lakes, and ponds.

When pesticides wash off fields into water, it's called runoff. This runoff can make organisms living in the water sick or even kill them. It is especially bad for amphibians like frogs and salamanders.

What Are the Alternatives to Pesticides?

There are often other ways to control pests without using chemical pesticides. These methods are sometimes called "alternatives."

• One way is using genetic engineering. This involves changing plants to make them naturally resistant to pests.
• Another method is to release other organisms that naturally control the pests. For example, predators or parasites can be used. Farmers might use ducks in rice fields to eat snails, which are pests.
• Some foods can be specially processed to help control certain pests.
• Farmers can also use polycultures. This means growing many different crops together in one field. This makes it harder for one type of pest to destroy all the plants.

Images for kids

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  A Lite-Trac four-wheeled self-propelled crop sprayer spraying pesticide on a field

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  Preparation for an application of hazardous herbicide in the US

See also

In Spanish: Plaguicida para niños