EDAPHIC AND WATER RELATIONSHIPS OF ALDICARB AND ITS METABOLITES

Abstract

AbstractLaboratory investigations were made to determine the persistence of aldicarb and its metabolites in soil (clay loam pH 6.8–7.2) and in water collected from fields. At dose rates of 15 and 20 p.p.m., aldicarb was not detectable in soil after 8 and 12 weeks, respectively. At 50 p.p.m., after 11 weeks chemically detectable amounts of the insecticide were present in the soil.Soil samples were stored between 23° and 28 °C but temperature at times reached 32 °C.In field water treated in the laboratory at 100 p.p.m. of aldicarb, the chemical and its metabolites were detectable at 0.4 p.p.m., 11 months later. Water was stored at 16°–20 °C and was exposed for 507.5 hours to sunlight.Aldicarb was eluted readily with water from soil columns.When aldicarb was applied as side dressing at the time of planting of sugarbeet roots and potatoes, residues of less than 0.05 p.p.m. were found in soil and potatoes at the time of harvest. One sugarbeet root sample contained 0.2 p.p.m. of the chemical and its metabolites.