How to become Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation in 2024

Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation Mix or apply pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or insecticides through sprays, dusts, vapors, soil incorporation, or chemical application on trees, shrubs, lawns, or crops. Usually requires specific training and state or federal certification.

Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation is Also Know as

In different settings, Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation is titled as

  • Chemical Applicator
  • Integrated Pest Management Technician (IPM Technician)
  • Lawn Specialist
  • Lawn Technician
  • Licensed Pesticide Applicator
  • Pest Control Technician
  • Pesticide Applicator
  • Spray Applicator
  • Spray Technician
  • Tree and Shrub Technician

Education and Training of Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation

Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation

Training Required for Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation in different industries are

What Do Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation do?

  • Fill sprayer tanks with water and chemicals, according to formulas.
  • Mix pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides for application to trees, shrubs, lawns, or botanical crops.
  • Cover areas to specified depths with pesticides, applying knowledge of weather conditions, droplet sizes, elevation-to-distance ratios, and obstructions.
  • Lift, push, and swing nozzles, hoses, and tubes to direct spray over designated areas.
  • Start motors and engage machinery, such as sprayer agitators or pumps or portable spray equipment.
  • Connect hoses and nozzles selected according to terrain, distribution pattern requirements, types of infestations, and velocities.
  • Clean or service machinery to ensure operating efficiency, using water, gasoline, lubricants, or hand tools.
  • Provide driving instructions to truck drivers to ensure complete coverage of designated areas, using hand and horn signals.
  • Plant grass with seed spreaders, and operate straw blowers to cover seeded areas with mixtures of asphalt and straw.
  • Identify lawn or plant diseases to determine the appropriate course of treatment.

Qualities of Good Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation

  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation

  • Air purifying respirators
  • Backpack sprayers
  • Boom sprayers
  • Broadcast boom sprayers
  • Chemical protection gloves
  • Chemical-resistant footwear
  • Chemical-resistant suits
  • Cold foggers
  • Digital flowmeters
  • Digital stopwatches
  • Electrostatic spray guns
  • Face masks
  • Handheld pump sprayers
  • Laptop computers
  • Measuring containers
  • Measuring tapes
  • Mechanical aerosol generators
  • Personal computers
  • Power sprayers
  • Protective face shields
  • Protective safety glasses
  • Safety goggles
  • Seed spreaders
  • Tablet computers
  • Thermal foggers
  • Truck mounted sprayers

Technology Skills required for Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation

  • Customer database software
  • Facebook
  • Geographic information system GIS systems
  • Materials inventory software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Rate calculation software
  • Unit conversion software