Commercial Pesticide

Identifying Categories

One of the most frequent and difficult problems associated with becoming a certified commercial pesticide applicator is determining what categories in which you need to be certified. It is important to ask yourself where will you be spraying, what you will be spraying (including site and pest) and for who you will be spraying. The answer to these questions should provide enough information to determine what category or certification you will need.

For example, people often say they will be spraying grass with a weed killer. In order to spray grass, an applicator could be certified in Agriculture Plant (1A), Turf (3B), Right-of-Way (6) or as a private applicator; so it is really important to determine where they will be spraying the grass. For this reason, it is imperative to understand what the person will be spraying, where the person will be applying the pesticide and if the application will be for compensation.

	Category	Category Description
1A	Agricultural Plant	Grasslands, non-crop agricultural lands, production of agricultural crops (including vegetables, feed grains, soybeans and forage, small fruits, tree fruits, nuts, tobacco, peanut and cotton).
1B	Agricultural Animal	On animals including: beef cattle, dairy cattle, swine, sheep, horses, goats, poultry and livestock. Places on or in which animals are confirmed (includes veterinarians who apply pesticides for hire).
1C	Wildlife Damage	Non-domesticated vertebrates in rangeland and agricultural areas.
1D	Stump Treatment	Cut stumps of woody plants in pastures, rangeland or lands in conservation reserve.
2	Forest	Forests, forest nurseries and forest seed-producing areas.
3A	Ornamental	Maintenance and production of ornamental trees, shrubs and flowers not included in 3C.
3B	Turf Pest	Maintenance and production of turf - lawns, golf courses, turf farms.
3C	Interior Landscape	Production and maintenance of houseplants and other indoor ornamental plants kept or located within structures occupied by humans - houses, apartments, offices, shopping malls, other places of business and other dwelling places.
4	Seed Treatments	Seeds.
5	Aquatic Pest	Applied to standing or running water (excludes applicators engaged in public health).
5S	Sewer Root Control	Sewer line root control (Metam sodium and other products).
6	Right-of-Way	Maintenance of public roads, electric powerlines, pipelines, railway right-of-way or similar. Also includes applications specified in 7C.
7A	Wood Destroying	Wood-destroyers - termites, powder post beetles, wood borers and wood rot fungus.
7B	Stored Products	Pests in stored grain and food products (stored product insects, cockroaches, rodents and birds), including fumigation.
7C	Industrial Weed	Weeds near industrial structures (also parking lots and sidewalks).
7D	Health Related	Management and control of pests with medical or health significance (mosquitoes, flies, fleas, lice, bedbugs, ticks, mites, ants, stinging insects, spiders, cockroaches, rodents, skunks, birds and bats).
7E	Structural Pest	Pests in structures (rodents, birds, cockroaches, spiders, wasps, bees, flies, ants, fleas, ticks, bed bugs, invaders, skunks, squirrels and bats).
7F	Wood Preservation & Wood Products	Poles, posts, cross-ties and wood products from damage by insects, fungi, marine organisms, weather deterioration or other wood-destroying agents.
8	Public Health	Government employees only in public health programs for the management and control of pests having medical and public health significance.
9A	Noxious Weeds	Government employees only for control of weeds regulated under the noxious weed law.
9B	Regulated Pest	Government employees for the control of federal or state regulated pests, other than noxious weeds.
10	Demonstration & Research	Individuals who demonstrate to the public the proper techniques for application and use or conduct field research, which involves the use of pesticides or lab personnel engaged in pesticide research under certain environmental conditions.