fumigant, any volatile, poisonous substance used to kill insects, nematodes, and other animals or plants that damage stored foods or seeds, human dwellings, clothing, and nursery stock. Soil fumigants are sprayed or spread over an area to be cultivated and are worked into the soil to control disease-causing fungi, nematodes, and weeds.
Fumigants with a high vapour pressure, such as methyl bromide, ethylene oxide, hydrogen cyanide, and hydrogen phosphide, penetrate quickly and are used to treat sealed storage areas or materials enclosed in gasproof sheets. Low-pressure compounds such as ethylene dibromide and ethylene dichloride diffuse more slowly; they are used to treat more open storage areas and as soil fumigants. Common fumigants used to treat stored products or nursery stock include hydrogen cyanide, naphthalene, nicotine, and methyl bromide.
Soil fumigants commonly used as nematocides are methyl bromide, dichloropropane, propylene oxide, dibromochloropropane, organophosphate insecticides, and chloropicrin. Because these substances may kill other soil organisms that ordinarily control nematodes by predation or infection, serious nematode infestations may follow fumigation.
Other compounds used as fumigants include acrylonitrile, carbon disulfide, ethylene, paradichlorobenzene, sulfur dioxide, and sulfuryl fluoride. Fumigants are poisonous to warm-blooded animals, including humans; they should be applied only by trained persons using proper equipment.