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This is Roger Tinker, Owner and General Manager of All Star Pest Control in Columbus Georgia. I will be discussing required training for Pest Control Technicians.
Both Georgia and Alabama require that all Pest Control Technicians be supervised by someone who has experience as prescribed by state standards, studied and passed the required test and then certified.
The test will include, but not limited to, questions on E.P.A. regulations, state rules and regulations, as well as a comprehensive knowledge of different pests. Also included is the understanding of labels and proper use of pesticides. All technicians MUST be supervised by a Certified Operator.
In Alabama a certified Operator must attend enough state approved classes each year to keep their certification valid. It takes at least 4 hours of state approved training to receive 10 points. Alabama requires that a minimum of 30 points be accumulated every three years.
In Georgia a certified operator must accumulate 50 hours of approved training for each 5 year period.
This breaks down to 25 hours for HPC (Household Pest Control) and 25 hours for WDO (termite, etc.)
Georgia also requires that all technicians obtain 70 hours training by a certified operator or a registered technician, obtain 10 hours of approved classroom training and the take and pass an examination at one of Georgia’s Technical Colleges. The technician must be supervised at all times until they pass the examination. A technician can then work by themselves, but always at the direction of the certified operator.
It is rumored that Alabama is going to require something similar to Georgia in the near future for technicians. I KNOW this will be good for our industry.
This is a basic outline of training for Pest Control and Termite Technicians. The important point here is that most states have a standard that must be met by technicians in order to insure work is done properly.
The Columbus – Phenix City Pest Control Association who’s membership is most of the Pest Control companies in the Columbus and Phenix City areas, provides a lot of training for technicians in this area.
Each year a four hour seminar is held on the 3rd Saturday in the month in February and August. Two hours of training is provided at noon time on the last Thursday of the month in April, June, October and December. The Courses all have Georgia credit hours, and the two Saturday course are good for 10 points per class.
Most of the technicians in this area accumulate more training than required by law because they want to do a good job.
We go even further than that at All Star Pest Control. Our technicians take a weekly test and then attend 3 hours of company training on the 1st Friday of each month. Some of these classes will include state approved training, but the important thing is that training is provided on a regular basis so that our technicians can perform their assignments properly.
I have been doing Pest Control since 1979, attended many, many hours of training, taught classes in Alabama and Georgia since 1999 and I still learn something new almost every day.
Please feel free to contact me if I can be of any help to you.
