What is spray drift?
Spray drift, movement of a pesticide through air, during or after application, to a site other than the intended site of application, is considered to be the most challenging problem facing applicators as well as manufacturers of pesticides. Although it may occur in the form of vaporized chemical active ingredients escaping the application area even long after the spraying is done, drift is often associated with the physical movement of spray droplets away from the target site at the time of application. Spray drift is not a new problem. It started nearly 50 years ago with the invention of pesticides. Problems associated with drift have always been in the minds of people who apply pesticides. However, spray drift has become a very serious concern in the last decade mostly because the pesticides we use today are more potent, and it takes only a small amount of drift to cause injury to nontarget plants and animals. During the last several years, about two-thirds of all the formal noncomp
