Commercial Horticulture: Pesticide Licensing
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Download the 2008 Pesticide Licensing Guide and Schedule.
Which pesticide license do you need?
Read through the following paragraphs to determine which pesticide license or certification you need. Exam qualifications, renewal information, CEU requriements, and study materials are all listed in the website. If you have further questions, call 321-633-1702 or 321-952-4536 or email lseals@ufl.edu.
Farms, ranches, gardens, nurseries, sod producers, groves: If you produce a crop or agricultural commodity (i.e., vegetables, fruit, ornamental plants, sod) and you apply restricted use pesticides, you need a Private Applicator Pesticide License.
Government employees – federal, state, county, city, or local agency or government entity: Any government employee who uses restricted use pesticides on the job needs a Public Applicator Pesticide License. This includes any of the following who use restricted use pesticides:
- Anyone working for municipal electric companies, city & county parks, government owned railways, state & federal highway departments, state universities (with appropriate categories)
- Extension Agents, public university researchers, and vocational agriculture instructors who use or demonstrate the use of restricted use pesticides (with appropriate categories)
- Federal and state personnel conducting pest eradication or control (with appropriate categories).
Any person who uses restricted use pesticides in any agricultural or related area needs a Commercial Applicator Pesticide License. This includes:
- Contract application of restricted use pesticides for someone else (when someone other than the owner or an employee of the firm makes the application).
- Non-contract application of restricted use pesticides for any purpose other than agricultural production, but not including work-related applications made by government employees.
Examples: a Commercial Applicator Pesticide License is required for owners or employees of the following businesses that use restricted use pesticides in their work:
- Aerial application service (not including public health aerial applications)
- Aquatic weed control service
- Cemetery maintenance service
- Park maintenance – recreational (privately owned), including athletic fields
- Golf course – turf or greens maintenance
- Chemical/fertilizer company – custom application
- Contract right-of-way pest control for government agencies or utilities
- Seed treatment company
- Wood treatment company
- Organotin antifouling paint (Exception: use of 16-ounce or smaller spray cans)
- Field or greenhouse research and demonstration by industry representatives
- Field or greenhouse research and demonstration by private researchers
An applicator may make applications of restricted use pesticides only in the categories for which he has been licensed. For example, a golf course applicator must be licensed in the ornamental & turf category. If he applies a restricted use pesticide to a pond on the golf course, he also needs a license in the aquatic category.
All persons who apply any pesticides (restricted use or general use) inside or to any part of a building or structure, or to ornamentals or turf associated with a building, including lawns and plant beds, must have a pesticide applicator certification issues by the FDACS Bureau of Entomology and Pest Control.
All persons in charge of commercial or residential pest control on a contract basis must have a Pest Control Operator (PCO) Certification. This certification is not offered by our office. Visit the FDACS Bureau of Entomology and Pest Control for more information about PCO Certification.
If you are a landscape service business (i.e., lawn maintenance, landscape maintenance) and you apply any pesticides (including Roundup™) to ornamental beds, you need a Limited Commercial Landscape Maintenance Certification.
If you are a government employee or a private/commercial property owner or employee on non-agricultural property, you need a Limited Lawn and Ornamental Certification. Example: pesticide applications to buildings or lawns and ornamentals associated with the following: government buildings (schools, agency offices, etc.) commercial buildings (banks, groceries, apartments, condominium common areas, hotels, restaurants, etc.). This certificate is not required if the only pesticides applied are disinfectants, sanitizers, or ready-to-use pesticides sold over the counter at retail.
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