Effects of Technical-Grade Active Ingredient vs. Commercial Formulation of Seven Pesticides in the Presence or Absence of UV Radiation on Survival of Green Frog Tadpoles

Commercial formulations of pesticides contain both active and other ingredients. In some instances, the other ingredients have detrimental effects on nontarget species. Other factors such as UV radiation and predator cues have been shown to modify the toxicity of pesticides. In a laboratory study we compared the effects of technical-grade active ingredients to commercial formulations of seven common pesticides in the presence or absence of UV radiation on the survival of Rana clamitans (green frog) tadpoles over 96 h. We found a significant difference in the survival of tadpoles in technical-grade active ingredients versus commercial formulations in all of the pesticides tested. We also found that either the presence or the absence of UV radiation affected the survival of tadpoles in five of the seven pesticides tested. These results suggest that there is a need to test the effects of both active ingredients and commercial formulations of pesticides and, also, to include relevant abiotic factors like UV radiation treatments in the testing of pesticides because they can have a dramatic impact on the toxicity of some chemicals.