Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Inorganic active ingredient containing – Peroxide or compositions of or releasing gaseous oxygen or...
Reexamination Certificate
1998-01-12
2002-09-24
Pak, John (Department: 1616)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Inorganic active ingredient containing
Peroxide or compositions of or releasing gaseous oxygen or...
C424S601000, C424S605000, C514S557000, C504S114000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06455075
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to the horticultural and agricultural field and more particularly to methods for killing, controlling or otherwise impacting the life cycle of insect pests found on agricultural and horticultural products. The term “agricultural and horticultural products” as used herein refers to (1) plants that are raised for their esthetic appearance as well as (2) plants and parts of plants that are cultivated or raised for food including the fruits or any part of such plants both before and after separation from the rest of the plant in addition to (3) the plants and parts of plants that grow wild. Thus, the invention has application to all plants, all fruits that are grown on plants, all cut flowers, or any part of a plant although the invention is not limited to controlling insects on these products.
Pesticides are an important component to agricultural production throughout the world. Pest control pertains to a wide range of environmental interventions that have their objective to kill or reduce to acceptable level insect pests, plant pathogens and weed populations. Specific control techniques include chemical, physical and biological control mechanisms. It has been estimated that pest annually destroy about 35% of all food crops before they are harvested and another 10-20% loss is incurred after the food is harvested.
Chemical controls include chemical agent pesticides that include herbicides, for the control of weeds, insecticides for the control of insect pests and fungicides for the control of soil and plant pathogens that include bacteria, fungi and viruses. Herbicides account for over half of the pesticides that are uses world wide, with 30-35% of pesticide production in the form of insecticides and the balance for the production of fungicides.
It is important to control populations of insects that affect ornamental and agricultural crops and inflict major damage to the crops resulting in crop loss. Insects can either directly affect crop loss by either feeding on the crop itself, they either damaging the plant from producing a fruit or tuber, such as a potato plant or indirectly by either sucking the juices out of a plant that directly affects the aesthetics of the plant, which in the case of ornamental crops such as cut flowers and house plants make the crop unsaleable.
Insects are also a major cause of the spread of infectious disease from plant to plant. As insects feed on the flowers and leaves of the plant, they pick up and transmit potentially deadly pathogenic disease organisms such as bacteria and fungi that are then transmitted to another plant when the insect either crawls on the plant, deposits feces or eats portions of the plant.
Most modern day insecticides are comprised of long lasting, synthetic compounds that affect the nervous system of insects on contact. Among the most effective are the chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as chlordane, and toxaphene and other organophoshates that include malathion, parathion, and dimethoate.
While these pesticides have prove to be very effective at controlling insect pests they have also contributed to an unacceptable environmental cycle that directly affects human health and welfare as well as direct and indirect environmental damage. Modem day insecticides primarily work by placing a poison or toxin residue on the surface of plant tissue or by directly spraying the insect pest with the poison compound.
With a typical insecticide the insect comes into contact with the toxic substance by either being directly sprayed or landing on the residue that has been placed on the plants surface or in the soil in which the plant is ground. The toxin is then either ingested, or enters the insects body through its pores. The toxin then either interferes with the insect's nervous system or other bodily functions such as making it sterile or incapable of eating. Eventually, the insect dies, if the toxin is not deadly enough to produce an immediate kill.
There are several problems that arise from using chemical insecticides. They include resistance, human toxicity, and environment damage.
Since traditional insecticides work on the principal of chemical toxicity, the insect is capable through genetic mutation of developing a resistance to the toxins that affect it. In the insect world, where generations are produced in the pans of weeks, the problem of genetic resistance is common. Within a very short amount of time, many insects that were formally susceptible to certain chemical compounds, find that sometimes within the span of a few years, the chemical either does not produce a kill or the dosage must be increased to produce a kill.
This is why insecticide applicators must cycle their applications of different chemical compounds so as not to allow insects they are trying to control to become accustom to any one chemical compound and ultimately to become immune to the chemical. This practice of chemical rotation is both times consuming and expensive, since the applicators must have at minimum three different chemical compounds for various types of insect pests.
Most chemical insecticides must be used and applied with extreme caution. Typically, the applicator must at all times wear special protective personal protection clothing. This includes the use of respirator and eye protection, as sell as chemical impervious coveralls and gloves. Since the insecticides produce a toxic residue and are by nature long lasting and complex compounds, over a period of time, direct exposure to insecticides can lead to human health concerns and in some cases direct exposure to certain insecticides can lead to toxic shock and death.
Due to the very nature of the insecticide that is designed to leave behind a toxic residue on either plant surfaces or in the soil, environmental damage is a direct concern. There has been increasing concern about the impact of groundwater by complex pesticide compounds that do not break down into innocuous substances. It has been documented that pesticide compounds have directly impacted groundwater aquifers and directly threated environmental security.
In addition to concerns about groundwater impacts, insecticides often impact non-target organisms within the environment that come into contact with the insecticide. These organisms include fish, birds, other non-pest insects, and all forms of animal life. There have been hundreds of documented cases of insecticides such as DDT and others entering the food chain and impacting birds such as the American bald eagle, storks, rainbow trout and others.
Because of the problems associated with the use of traditional chemical insecticides a need exisits for a safe method to control insect pests commonly found in commerical horticulture and agriculture.
An object of the present invention is to provide a safe method of controlling insect populations through either direct killing or by killing of insect larvae and food sources
It is an another object of the present invention to provide a method to control insect populations that is safe and convenient to use.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of controlling insect pests, which reduces worker exposure to hazardous and toxic compounds.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method of protecting plants from insect infestations through the entire life cycle of the plant.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It has now been found that these and other objects of the invention may be attained in a method for control of insects which includes applying a solution of hydrogen peroxide to plant tissue, said hydrogen peroxide being a solution having a concentration of between 0.05 to 3.00%.
In some cases the hydrogen peroxide solution has a concentration of between 0.05 and 1.5%. Some forms of the invention may utilize a hydrogen peroxide solution that further includes an acid selected from the group consisting of acetic acid and phosphoric acid.
In some cases the hydrogen peroxide solution is applied to the plant tissue at a variety of stages in the plant produ
Pak John
Smith Robert S.
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