Tebuthiuron
Nonselective broad spectrum herbicide
Tebuthiuron is a nonselective broad spectrum herbicide of the urea class. It is used to control weeds, woody and herbaceous plants, and sugar cane. It is absorbed by the roots and transported to the leaves, where it inhibits photosynthesis. The ingredient was discovered by Air Products and Chemicals, but was registered by Elanco in the United States in 1974, and later sold to Dow AgroSciences.
01Environmental impacts
The Environmental Protection Agency considers tebuthiuron to have a great potential for groundwater contamination, due to its high water solubility, low adsorption to soil particles, and high persistence in soil (soil half-life can exceed 360 days).
In Europe, tebuthiuron has been banned since November 2002.
02Application
Tebuthiuron is used agriculturally in Australia and the United States, usually formulated as granules, pellets or a wettable powder. Pellets can be applied by hand (e.g. onto a clump of regrowth or along a fenceline), and by aircraft or ground equipment. It can be applied any time of year, and once applied remains effective for several years. Tebuthiuron (as a 20% pellet) is applied at 0.5-2 g/m2, equating to 0.1-0.4 g/m2 of active ingredient.
Tebuthiuron's herbicide resistance class is Group C, (Australia), C2 (global), Group 7, (numeric, i.e. Group 5, due to a merger).
03Vandalism
In 2010, tebuthiuron in the form of Dow AgroSciences Spike 80DF was deliberately used in an act of vandalism to poison the live oak trees at Toomer's Corner on the Auburn University campus following the 2010 Iron Bowl. The lone perpetrator, a University of Alabama fan, was charged with first-degree criminal mischief and jailed on a $50,000 bond. Remediation involved removing about 1,780 tons of contaminated material.
In 2021, Arthur and Amelia Bond, wealthy summer residents of Camden, Maine poisoned their neighbor's oak trees with tebuthiuron to obtain a better view of Camden Harbor. They paid over $200,000 in fines to address illegal pesticide use and environmental contamination, and $1.5 million to settle with their neighbor.
04Tradenames
Tebuthiuron has been sold as "Tebuthiuron", "Brush", "Bullet", "Graslan", "Herbic", "Outlaw", "Perflan", "Reclaim", "Spike" and "Tebulex".
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Tebuthiuron”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Tebuthiuron.svg by Ed (Edgar181), Public domain
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