Commercial Applicator (Not For Hire)
Not-for-hire defined
A commercial applicator (not for hire) applies pesticides as an employee or agent of a public or private entity on property owned or controlled by that entity, not for compensation from outside customers. Typical settings include school districts, municipalities, parks, hospitals, golf courses, apartment complexes, utilities, and industrial sites. The applicator still must be certified in the right category; what changes is that the work is in-house rather than a service sold to the public.
Core rules
- Certification is required before using or supervising RUPs, just as for for-hire work. Match the category to the site: ornamental and turf for grounds, right-of-way for roads and utilities, industrial/institutional for buildings, aquatic for ponds, public health for vector work.
- The employer must limit applications to property it owns or controls. Taking payment to treat a neighboring property converts the work to for hire and triggers business licensing.
- Supervise noncertified employees as required; the certified applicator is responsible for label compliance, PPE, REIs, and records.
- Keep application records and any required posting or notification. Schools, childcare, and health-care settings often have specific notification and integrated pest management (IPM) requirements; follow the label and Delaware site rules.
- Use IPM: identify the pest, set a threshold, choose the least-risk effective option, and document why a pesticide was needed.
Worked example
A city parks employee is certified in Ornamental and Turf. She sprays a restricted-use insecticide on city-owned trees and turf. That is not-for-hire work: the city owns the property and does not sell the service. If the city crew also sprays a private cemetery for a fee, that job is for hire and the city would need the appropriate business license and category coverage, or the cemetery must hire a licensed for-hire firm.
Traps
Believing “not for hire” means no certification; using a category for a site the employer does not control; forgetting that a school or hospital may have extra notification and IPM rules; letting uncertified staff spray RUPs unsupervised; not documenting applications because no customer invoice exists.