Selling Restricted-Use Pesticides to a Customer Without a License
A farm supply dealer in Ohio sells restricted-use pesticides. A long-time customer, a farmer, comes in to buy a restricted-use insecticide for his own farm. The farmer says his private applicator license expired last month and he has not renewed it, but he needs the product today to treat an infestation. The dealer knows the farmer has been a licensed private applicator for 20 years and has always used products correctly. The dealer is tempted to sell the product and let the farmer sort out the license later. The dealer holds a valid pesticide dealer license.
1. May the dealer legally sell this restricted-use pesticide to the farmer under these facts? Explain the reasoning.
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No. Restricted-use pesticides may be sold only to certified applicators (or to persons under their direct supervision, consistent with the label and Ohio requirements). A dealer is required to verify that the purchaser is properly certified before completing a restricted-use sale. An expired license means the farmer is not currently a certified private applicator, regardless of his long history. The dealer's personal knowledge that the farmer is competent does not substitute for a current certification. Selling to an uncertified person is a violation by the dealer and also puts the farmer in violation if he applies a restricted-use product without certification. The correct action is to decline the sale until the farmer provides proof of current certification.
2. What records must the dealer maintain for restricted-use pesticide sales, and how would they look in this scenario?
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Dealers must keep records of restricted-use pesticide sales that identify the product, the quantity sold, the date of sale, and the certified applicator/purchaser, including the purchaser's certification number. If the dealer made the sale, the record would show a purchaser whose certification number is expired-an obvious red flag on its face during an ODA audit. Because the dealer should not have made the sale, there is no compliant record to create. The lesson is that the record requirement is not just paperwork: it is the mechanism by which the state verifies that restricted-use products reached certified hands. A dealer who cannot produce a valid certification number for a sale has a documentation problem and likely a substantive violation.
3. The farmer offers to sign a statement promising to renew his license before applying. Does that solve the problem? What should the dealer tell him?
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No. A promise to become certified in the future does not make the farmer a certified applicator at the time of sale, and the dealer cannot rely on it. The dealer should explain that he cannot sell restricted-use products without current certification, and direct the farmer to ODA to renew or to determine whether any expedited process is available. If the infestation is urgent, the dealer can discuss non-restricted alternatives or a licensed custom applicator who could make the application. The dealer should document the refusal in his own records so that, if questioned, he can show he followed the certification requirement.