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Herbicides are a subset of pesticides. (I know, I used to think “pesticide” meant it killed creatures, but plants are also pests.)
by TazeTSchnitzel 9y ago
Herbicides are a subset of pesticides.
(I know, I used to think “pesticide” meant it killed creatures, but plants are also pests.)
- exabrial 9y agoYep, you are indeed correct. The correct comment should be: This article is about a specific class of insecticide, not a herbicides. Coincidently, I learned that Neonicotinoids means 'chemically similar to nicotine', I thought that was a coincidence at first.
- evincarofautumn 9y agoA lot of “compounds of interest” such as nicotine, opium latex, and capsaicin evolved as part of the natural defense mechanisms of plants against insects and herbivores.
- ipsin 9y agoSo "nicotinoids" means "chemically similar to nicotine", and... "neo-" means new. Some of the literature refers to nicotinoids and some to neonicotinoids. What I haven't been able to figure out is if there was essentially a "second wave" of nicotinoids that someone -- a scientist or marketer -- figured was deserving of the "neo-" prefix.
- dEnigma 9y agoOne random, uneducated guess from me: Maybe the "neo-" prefix is only for those that don't show up in nature, so they have to be produced in labs, and are thus "new" to the environment?
- Houshalter 9y agoIndeed but people confuse the two. Almost all of the issues with pesticides come from insecticides specifically. Insectices are designed to kill animals after all.