Dictionary: fumigant   (fyū'mĭ-gənt)

A chemical compound used in its gaseous state as a pesticide or disinfectant.

[Latin fūmigāns, fūmigant-, present participle of fūmigāre, to smoke. See fumigate.]

A pesticidal chemical or chemical formulation that functions in a gaseous state. Chemical formulations are designed to increase toxicity, reduce flammability, give off warning odors, and provide for sorption at different rates.

Physical types of fumigants include gases, liquids, and solids. There are several chemical types of fumigants. These include: halogenated hydrocarbons, such as carbon tetrachloride and ethylene dibromide; sulfur-containing compounds, such as carbon disulfide and sulfur dioxide; cyanides, such as hydrogen cyanide and calcium cyanide; and others, such as phosphine and ethylene dioxide.

Fumigants are used in space fumigations to disinfest food-processing plants, warehouses, grain elevators, boxcars, ship-holds, stores, and households, and in spot fumigations within those structures. They are used in atmospheric vaults and vacuum chambers and are applied extensively to stacked bags of grain or stored foods under polyethylene sheets, to trees under tents to control scale insects, and to areas of land to destroy weeds, soil-infesting insects, and nematodes.

A chemical compound used in its gaseous state as a disinfectant.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a chemical substance used in fumigation