Fumigator

Fumigator 

a device used for treating plants, soil, and agricultural storehouses with fumigants. A distinction is made between soil and tent fumigators.

The soil fumigator is used in applying fumigants to the soil in liquid form to control insects of the Phylloxeridae family. The device is mounted on a vineyard plow. Different models have operating widths of 2, 2.25, and 2.5 m; a single row is treated. The rate of fumigation is 0.87 hectares per hour.

There are two types of tent fumigator—the tea bush fumigator, which is mounted on a 0.6 ton-force self-propelled frame and is used for chemical treatment of rows of tea bushes, and the citrus fumigator, which is placed on a motorized wagon and is used for treating citrus trees. The effective agent in tent fumigation is hydrogen cyanide, which is formed when tsianplav (a mixture of calcium cyanide and sodium cyanide) reacts with drops of water under the tent that is used to cover the citrus tree or the row of tea bushes. Tea and citrus fumigators may have operating widths of 3 m or more. The tea fumigator treats two rows, and the citrus fumigator, one. The former’s rate of fumigation is 0.4 hectares per hour, and the latter’s 32 trees per hour.

The soil fumigator is operated by a tractor driver; the tent fumigator requires four workers.