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Word of the Week (231): DALAPON (probability 12013), by David Sutton

DALAPON is a herbicide used on unwanted grass.

I really cannot work up much enthusiasm for herbicides and pesticides viewed as words. They are rather colourless and characterless, except perhaps to a chemist, and take a lot of remembering. But there are a lot of them, and they tend to be reasonably high probability, so one has to persevere. So here are a few more:

DEMETON, DIAZINON, ENDRIN, FENTHION, LINDANE, MENAZON, MIREX, PARATHION, ROTENONE and THIRAM are examples of insecticides.

ALACHLOR, AMITROLE, DICAMBA, DIQUAT, DIURON, FENURON, LINURON, MONURON, PHORATE, PICLORAM, SILVEX and SIMAZINE are examples of herbicides.

BENOMYL, BIPHENYL, CAPTAN, FERBAM, MILNEB, ZINEB and ZIRAM are examples of fungicides.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could do away with all these noxious substances and control pests by greener means e.g. by introducing their natural predators? Of course, that didn't work out too well with the cane toads introduced into Australia in 1935 in an attempt to control the cane beetle: unfortunately the toads showed little interest in their assigned role of eating beetles but being poisonous did a lot of damage to other forms of native wildlife. I suppose if the world's population is to be fed we'd better stick to that new arrival in CSW15, CROPDUSTING...

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