Weed Control Is Important – But Doing It Right Includes Doing It Legally

As a Northern Nevada homeowner, you need to be careful about who you hire – this almost goes without saying. But it’s far more important to know that the person putting potentially hazardous materials on your property are fully licensed by the state and have the skills and knowledge to correctly treat your property. The lives of your children, pets and plants depend on it. To find out how we can help you control your weeds, visit our Weed Control page.

According to Lee Lawrence, Pest Control Operator Licensing and Enforcement Nevada Department of Agriculture, the Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDOA) contacted several landscape maintenance companies to inquire about their pre-emergent herbicide application practices.

The NDOA discovered that many of the companies offered to perform pre-emergent herbicide applications regardless of whether they had a Nevada pest control license or how big the job was.

The NDOA is on the look out for non-licensed gardeners and landscape maintainers who perform one of these three important actions:

1. No advertisement or solicitation to perform weed control or other types of pest control.
   The NDOA is constantly on the lookout for unlicensed companies or individuals who place pest control ads in the yellow pages, on fliers, business cards, on websites, post pest control services on Craigslist, etc. Such ads by unlicensed entities are “serious violations” and can result in a minimum fine of $500.00. Therefore advertising or soliciting to perform weed control or other forms of pest control by unlicensed entities is strictly prohibited.
   
   
2. No use of “power equipment” to apply herbicides or other types of pesticides.
   Simply stated, the use of any motorized equipment to apply a herbicide, insecticide, fungicide or other pesticide, can only be done by a licensed pest control professional.
   
   
3. A pesticide application must be a part of a maintenance service for which charges can not exceed 20% of the charges for the entire maintenance service.
   In other words, in addition to the points presented above, any time a charge is made for a pesticide application, the charge must be part of an overall maintenance service and must not exceed 20% of service charges. During the NDOA’s initial contact with the unlicensed landscape companies it was determined that criteria #3 was the most violated of the three points listed above because the pre-emergent application they were offering was not 20% or less of an existing maintenance service.

As a final note, some of the companies contacted believed that since they were using over the counter herbicides they were exempt from the issue of whether or not they needed a pest control license. Their belief was incorrect. It is the service that matters, not where the product was purchased.

This blog post was born from a post by Lee Lawrence, Pest Control Operator Licensing and Enforcement Nevada Department of Agriculture, on the NDOA web site.

If you have any questions about Nevada’s pest control license laws or would like to find out about acquiring a Nevada pest control license contact Lee Lawrence at the Nevada Department of Agriculture (775) 353-3671.