rotenone

noun

ro·te·none ˈrō-tə-ˌnōn

: a crystalline insecticide C₂₃H₂₂O₆ obtained from the roots of several tropical plants (such as a derris) that is highly toxic to fish but is of low toxicity to warm-blooded animals and is used especially in home gardens

Examples of rotenone in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Over the course of one week in 2015, state and federal agencies killed 450 brook trout using a broad application of rotenone throughout 38 miles of the Lamar River tributary. —

Travis Hall, Field & Stream, 24 Aug. 2023 As crews finished building the 500-foot dam in 1962, the Utah and Wyoming departments of fish and game poisoned more than 400 miles of the Green River with the chemical rotenone. —

Leia Larsen, The Salt Lake Tribune, 22 July 2023 Studies have shown that copper sulfate, pyrethrins, and rotenone all can be detected on plants after harvest—for copper sulfate and rotenone, those levels exceeded safe limits. —

Christie Wilcox, Discover Magazine, 24 Sep. 2012 The 3- to 7-acre nursery ponds were poisoned with rotenone to kill out any existing fish before the Florida fish were stocked, along with forage species, including bluegill, threadfin shad and fathead minnows. —

Matt Williams, Dallas News, 29 July 2022 The agency treated the slough with the fish killer rotenone on Saturday and Sunday. —

Brandon Loomis, USA TODAY, 19 Sep. 2022 Fisheries biologists regularly apply liquid rotenone in Western streams to rid them of rainbow and other nonnative trout with the goal of restoring native cutthroat trout populations. —

Brian Maffly, The Salt Lake Tribune, 26 Aug. 2021 Applying rotenone in lakes is a much different operation, deploying a powdered form of the chemical with the consistency of flour. —

Brian Maffly, The Salt Lake Tribune, 26 Aug. 2021 From 2013 to 2015, 11 miles (18 kilometers) of Silver King Creek and three tributaries were treated with a fish toxicant, rotenone, to remove all non-native species. —

San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Sep. 2019 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rotenone.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.