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Massachusetts has the following Pesticide Applicator Categories:

All certifications granted by Massachusetts Department of Agriculture

Contractor's license is not required for primary contractor.
Subcontractor's license is not required.

Brad Mitchell, Director
617-626-1771
brad.mitchell@state.ma.us

Directory of Pesticide Control Officials

10.03: Categorization of Commercial Applicators of Pesticides

Every commercial applicator who uses or supervises the use of a restricted or state limited use pesticide in any of the following categories must be certified for that category or subcategory.

The categories and subcategories for commercial applicators are:

1. Agricultural Pest Control - includes applicators who make or supervise applications of pesticides useful in the production of agricultural commodities and includes bulk application of fertilizer pesticide mixtures and treatments applied to grasslands and non-crop agricultural lands. Also included are applicators of pesticides to farm and domestic animals or to structures or areas in or on which such animals are confined. Doctors of Veterinary Medicine unless engaged in the business of applying pesticides for hire, publicly holding themselves out as pesticide applicators, or engaged in large scale use of pesticides are excluded from this category.
2. Forest Pest Control - includes applicators who make or supervise applications to forest, forest nurseries or forest seed producing areas; including governmental employees operating on public or private lands.
3. Ornamental and Turf Pest Control
   1. Shade Trees and Ornamentals - includes applicators (including those who make application to recreational areas, golf courses, parks, arboretums, or for governmental agencies, or business entities or projects operation on public or private lands) who take or supervise applications to ornamental trees, shrubs or flowers.
   2. Turf - includes applicators who make or supervise applications to grassed areas including those who make applications to the areas and in the situations enumerated above under Shade Trees and Ornamentals.
   3. Interior Landscaping - includes applicators who make pesticide applications to maintain plants indoors in such areas as public and private buildings.
4. Seed Treatment - includes those commercial applicators who use or supervise the use of pesticides to treat seeds to be used in plant propagations.
5. Aquatic Pest Control - includes applicators who use or supervise the use of pesticides applied to running, standing or stored water mainly for vegetation control or to water treatment areas to control vegetation and certain insects. This category includes applications of pesticides for fish population control, but excludes applications made to water as part of a public health pest or nuisance control program such as for mosquito control.
6. Right-of-Way Pest Control - includes applicators who use or supervise the use of pesticides for vegetation control along public roads, pipelines, power lines, substations, railway rights of way, or similar areas both publicly and privately owned.
7. Industrial, Institutional, Structural and Health Related Pest Control - includes commercial applicators using or supervising the use of pesticides in, or, or around food handling establishments, human dwellings, institutions, such as schools and hospitals, industrial establishments, including warehouses and grain elevators, and any other structures and adjacent areas, public or private; and for the protection of stores, processed,or manufactured products. 333 CMR 10.03(7) is subdivided as follows;
   1. General - includes applicators such as pest control operators (exterminators) and employees of food handling establishments, hospitals, schools, residential complexes, and public institutions of all types who use pesticides, mainly indoors.
   2. Fumigation - includes applicators who are especially trained and equipped to use volatile pesticides in sealed spaces.
   3. Site Sanitation - includes applicators whose specialty is complete vegetation control at such sites as industrial complexes, railroad yards, and utility substations.
   4. Termite and Structural Pest Control - includes pest control operators and other applicators trained and equipped for the specialized use of pesticides to protect structures from termite attack, or attack by other wood destroying organisms.
   5. Food Processing Pest Control - includes applicators who use or supervise the use of pesticides in food processing establishments to control pests, which pests may contaminate or destroy food products or which are nuisances created by the processing of food products.
   6. Vertebrate Pest Control - includes applicators who use or supervise the use of pesticides for the control of all vertebrate animals except rats and mice.
   7. Wood Preservative - includes applicators who supervise the use of pesticides for the purpose of wood preservation.
8. Public Health Pest and Nuisance Control - includes applicators who use or supervise the use of pesticides to water or as residual and space treatments on public and private lands, by governmental agency employees, to control pests considered to be serious nuisances or as potential disease carriers and thus of public health or medical importance.
   1. General - includes applicators who control rodents, ticks, mites and other disease vectors, except those in 333 CMR 10.03(8)(b).
   2. Mosquitoes and Biting Flies - includes applicators who control mosquitoes, tabanids, black flies and other diptera.
9. Regulatory Pest Control - includes all governmental employees who use or supervise the use of pesticides to control pests subject to quarantine or other regulation.
10. Demonstration and Research Pest Control - includes persons such as University of Massachusetts Cooperative Extension Service and Massachusetts Experiment Station personnel; representatives of pesticide manufacturers, distributors and other commercial firms; and other persons who demonstrate pesticide uses and methods of applications.
11. Aerial Application - includes persons who apply pesticide by means of aircraft including helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Aerial applicators applying restricted and state limited use pesticides must successfully complete an examination for each applicable category or subcategory in addition to meeting the general and aerial application standards.