GA Pesticide Applicator study guide
GA Pesticide Applicator · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Georgia Pesticide Applicator credential is a state certification for people who apply pesticides as part of their work - growers and farm employees who treat their own or their employer's land, and for-hire applicators who treat property belonging to others. Authority sits with the Georgia Department of Agriculture, whose pesticide program enforces state and federal law on the sale, distribution, and use of pesticides; the governing framework is the Georgia Pesticide Control Act of 1976 (O.C.G.A. The GA Pesticide Applicator study guide has 6 sections and about 1,841 words.
01Pesticide Laws and Regulations
FIFRA is the federal law governing pesticide registration and use; EPA registers products and sets minimum national standards. Georgia enforces FIFRA and its own Georgia Pesticide Control Act through the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA), the state lead agency.
351 words, about 2 min02Pesticide Labels and Labeling
The label is the printed material on or attached to the container; labeling is everything else that accompanies the product - brochures, supplemental labels, worker protection sheets. Both are legally enforceable.
306 words, about 2 min03Pesticide Safety, Toxicology, and Human Health
Toxicity is expressed as LD50 (mg/kg body weight) or LC50 (mg/L of air or water), the dose killing 50% of test animals. Lower numbers mean greater toxicity.
281 words, about 1 min04Environmental Protection and Pesticide Fate
After application a pesticide may adsorb to soil particles, leach, run off, volatilize, be broken down by sunlight (photodegradation), by water (hydrolysis), or by microbes, or be taken up by plants. Half-life measures persistence; long half-life plus high water solubility plus low soil binding equals groundwater risk.
314 words, about 2 min05Pest Identification and Integrated Pest Management
IPM combines prevention, monitoring, and the least-risk effective tactic. Know three terms: the economic threshold (pest density where control cost equals crop loss), the action threshold (the level at which you actually treat), and monitoring tools (sweep nets, sticky cards, pheromone traps, degree-days, weed counts).
291 words, about 1 min06Application Equipment, Calibration, and Application Procedures
Flat-fan nozzles give broadcast coverage; even flat-fan for banding; hollow-cone for canopy penetration and finer droplets; flood and deflector tips for coarse, low-pressure, low-drift work near sensitive areas; air-induction tips for large drift-resistant droplets. Droplet size shrinks as pressure rises, so never use pressure to change rate.
298 words, about 1 min