Florida pesticide and fertilizer record rules for lawn care companies

Last reviewed October 10, 2026 · 7 min read

The short answer

In Florida, lawn pest control is licensed by FDACS under the Structural Pest Control Act. A licensed business keeps its pest control records, contracts included, at the licensed location for at least 2 years. For each restricted-use pesticide application the rule spells out what to record: the product brand, the amount, the use, the date and the place. Keep copies of the current label of every pesticide you use. Anyone applying commercial fertilizer to lawns needs FDACS’s fertilizer certification; when and where you may fertilize is set by county and city ordinances, not state law.

General information, not legal advice. Rules change and can depend on what you apply and where. Confirm what applies to your business with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) and the product label before you rely on anything here.

Who regulates lawn care applicators

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) licenses and regulates pest control businesses, including lawn and ornamental pest control, under the Structural Pest Control Act (Chapter 482). Under that law, applying any substance to control pests in, on or under a lawn counts as pest control.

FDACS also certifies commercial fertilizer applicators. The rules on how lawns may be fertilized are different: the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) publishes a model fertilizer ordinance, and counties and cities adopt it.

Sources: FDACS: Pest Control, Florida Statutes Chapter 482, Pest Control (Structural Pest Control Act), Florida Statutes Chapter 403, ss. 403.9335–403.9338 (urban and residential fertilizer), Florida DEP: Florida-Friendly Fertilizer Model Ordinance

Licenses you need

Pest control business license: every business location needs its own FDACS license, renewed every year ($300 to issue, $300 a year to renew). The business must carry liability insurance of at least $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence for bodily injury and $250,000 per occurrence and $500,000 aggregate for property damage, or $500,000 combined single limit.
Certified operator in charge: each licensed location needs one, certified in every category of pest control done there. Lawn work is the lawn and ornamental category. The certificate is renewed every year, and before the exam an applicant must take part in at least 45 jobs in Florida under a certified operator’s supervision, documented on form FDACS-13653.
Employee identification cards: every employee who performs pest control needs an FDACS identification card, applied for within 30 days of hiring ($10 a card), carried on the job and shown to the customer or an inspector on request.
Employee training: no employee may apply pest control before at least 5 days of field training in that category under a certified operator’s direct supervision. Each cardholder also needs 4 hours of classroom training within 6 months of the card being issued and at least 2 hours of continuing training by each card renewal.
Limited Commercial Landscape Maintenance certification: lets an individual apply herbicides to weeds in plant beds, driveways, sidewalks and patios, and treat ornamental plants with pesticides that carry no signal word or only “Caution”, with handheld or backpack equipment only. It does not allow any pesticide application to turf, running a pest control business, or supervising uncertified people who apply.
Fertilizer: since January 1, 2014, anyone applying commercial fertilizer to an urban landscape needs FDACS’s Limited Certification for Urban Landscape Commercial Fertilizer Application. You send FDACS a training certificate from the DEP-approved best management practices program (FDACS says six hours of Green Industry Best Management Practices training) and a $25 fee. It lasts 4 years; renewal needs 4 classroom hours of continuing education, at least 2 on fertilizer best management practices, and $25. A county or city may not add its own testing for holders.

The fertilizer certification does not cover pesticides: it does not allow applying pesticides to turf or ornamentals, including weed and feed, running a pest control business, or supervising uncertified people who apply. Yard workers who fertilize individual homes only with the owner’s or resident’s fertilizer and equipment do not need it.

Anyone licensed or certified under Chapter 482 is exempt from the licensing provisions of the Florida Pesticide Law (Chapter 487).

Sources: Florida Statutes Chapter 482, Pest Control (Structural Pest Control Act), F.A.C. Chapter 5E-14, Pest Control Regulations, FDACS: Pest Control Licensing and Certification, FDACS: Pest Control FAQ, Florida Statutes Chapter 403, ss. 403.9335–403.9338 (urban and residential fertilizer), Florida Statutes Chapter 487 Part I, Florida Pesticide Law

What to record for each application

Rule 5E-14.142 requires a licensee to keep its pest control records about pest control activities, including contracts, at the licensed business location (or the Florida address named in its license application) for FDACS inspectors.

For each restricted-use pesticide application the rule also requires routine operational records at the licensed business location showing:

Product brands (names)
Amounts
Uses
Dates of application
Places of application

Keep copies, paper or digital, of the current registered label of every pesticide you use at the licensed business location, available for inspection. Licensees and their employees must also give FDACS true information on request about the methods and materials used and the work performed.

Tip: The rule lists items only for restricted-use applications. For what FDACS expects in your records for other lawn applications, ask FDACS.

Sources: F.A.C. Chapter 5E-14, Pest Control Regulations, Florida Statutes Chapter 482, Pest Control (Structural Pest Control Act)

How long to keep records and who can ask for them

Pest control records, including contracts: at least 2 years.
Restricted-use pesticide operational records: at least 2 years, at the licensed business location.
Employee training: written records of each cardholder’s initial and continuing training, kept at least 2 years and shown at inspection or when FDACS asks.
Records kept electronically must be provided to FDACS on request.
Licensees, certified operators and employees must let authorized FDACS representatives view their records upon written request, and FDACS may enter premises during regular business hours for its duties on pesticides and their records.
FDACS can fine a violation of Chapter 482 or its rules up to $5,000 per violation, among other penalties.

Sources: F.A.C. Chapter 5E-14, Pest Control Regulations, Florida Statutes Chapter 482, Pest Control (Structural Pest Control Act)

Customer notice, posting and lawn signs

If a customer asks, you must give them your business name, the applicator’s identification card number, the brand or common name of the pesticide and the common name of its active ingredient, and the safety information from the product label.

When a pesticide is applied to a lawn or exterior foliage, the applicator must post a notice in a conspicuous location at the time of application:

At least 4 by 5 inches, of rigid, durable weatherproof material
Contrasting background and lettering
Clearly showing the business name of the licensee making the application
Print and symbol size matching the example in Rule 5E-14.147; the notice may be part of a larger sign with more information

FDACS keeps a registry of people who, on a physician’s certificate, need advance notice of pesticide applications near their home. It sends licensees the registry every quarter (names, addresses, the pesticides or classes of pesticides, and the notification distance) and publishes a live map of registrants. The distance covers adjacent and contiguous properties unless the physician is board certified in allergy, toxicology or occupational medicine, and never more than a half-mile radius.

Before applying a pesticide to a lawn, plant bed or exterior foliage within a registrant’s area, notify them at least 24 hours ahead by phone, mail, in person or hand delivery, giving the location to be treated and the type of pesticide. A small spot treatment of an infestation or disease found on site during the treatment is the exception.

Sources: Florida Statutes Chapter 482, Pest Control (Structural Pest Control Act), F.A.C. Chapter 5E-14, Pest Control Regulations, FDACS: Registry of Persons Requiring Prior Notification of Pesticides

Fertilizer rules

Commercial fertilizer application to lawns needs the FDACS certification described above. The rules on when and where you may fertilize (storm and heavy-rain periods, distances from water, keeping fertilizer off pavement) come from county and city ordinances based on DEP’s model ordinance, not from state law. Counties and cities in the watershed of a water body listed as impaired by nutrients must adopt at least the model ordinance and may adopt stricter rules; ordinances adopted before January 1, 2009 are exempt, and later ones must conform to the latest model. Check the county and city where the property is.

Where a county or city has adopted the model ordinance:

No nitrogen or phosphorus fertilizer while a flood, tropical storm or hurricane watch or warning is in effect for the area, if heavy rain is likely, or on saturated soils.
No fertilizer within 10 feet of any pond, stream, watercourse, lake, canal, wetland or the top of a seawall, or within 3 feet with a deflector shield or drop spreader.
Rotary spreaders must have deflector shields. Fertilizer may not be applied or spilled on impervious surfaces; any that lands there must be cleaned up at once, and it may never be washed, swept or blown into storm drains or water.
Fertilizer must be formulated and applied according to Rule 5E-1.003(2), and nitrogen or phosphorus may not be applied otherwise unless a soil or tissue test shows a deficiency.

Rule 5E-1.003(2) is a label rule for lawn fertilizer sold in bags of 49 pounds or less for home and garden use:

It must be “no phosphate” (no more than 0.5% available phosphate) or “low phosphate” (label directions of no more than 0.25 lb P2O5 per 1,000 sq ft per application and 0.50 lb a year). Starter fertilizer directions may call for up to 1.0 lb P2O5 per 1,000 sq ft, with later applications using no- or low-phosphate products.
Label directions may not call for more than 0.7 lb of readily available nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft at a time, 2 lb of total nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft per application in spring or summer, or 1 lb in fall or winter, and must stay within the rule’s annual nitrogen table by grass type and region (North, Central and South Florida).

The state has exclusive authority over the sale, composition, labeling and formulation of fertilizer, except for local ordinances on fertilizer sales adopted before July 1, 2011. Any irrigation system used to apply fertilizer must have an antisiphon device.

Sources: Florida Statutes Chapter 482, Pest Control (Structural Pest Control Act), Florida Statutes Chapter 403, ss. 403.9335–403.9338 (urban and residential fertilizer), F.A.C. Chapter 5E-1, Fertilizer, Florida DEP: Florida-Friendly Fertilizer Model Ordinance, Florida Statutes Chapter 576, Agricultural Fertilizers

How GroundsQuote’s chemical records line up

GroundsQuote keeps an application record for each chemical a crew puts down on a job. On a job at a property in Florida, Finish job asks the crew for the details Florida lists, and the records export with the columns in Florida’s order. Here is each item Florida lists, set against what the record actually holds. Keeping the record complete and correct is still your responsibility.

Florida record items and GroundsQuote’s chemical application record
Florida asks for	In GroundsQuote	Status
Restricted use: product brand (name)	Product name, from the chemical’s setup	Recorded
Restricted use: amounts	Rate applied, area treated (sq ft) and total used	Recorded
Restricted use: uses	Where on the property (front lawn, beds, fence line… or a description), set on the job, the service and the target pest	Recorded
Restricted use: date of application	Date applied	Recorded
Restricted use: place of application	Address, city, state, ZIP and county	Recorded
Pest control contracts	Chemical notices & contracts on the customer’s page: each contract with its dates, the signed copy and the accepted quote it came from	Recorded
Copies of current registered labels	A copy of the label (PDF or photo) kept on each chemical; each record notes the label it was applied under; keeping them current is up to you	Recorded

Keep each cardholder’s training records with their training and ID records. The visit email can tell the customer what was applied, but it does not carry everything a Florida customer may ask for (the applicator’s identification card number, the active ingredient’s common name and the label’s safety information), so be ready to provide those yourself.

Everything a GroundsQuote application record holds

When:: Date and time applied (when the job was finished), job start and finish times (the office can correct them), and when people may go back onto the lawn (from the label’s re-entry interval)
Where:: Customer name, phone and mailing address, street address, city, state, ZIP and county of the property, and where on the property it went (front lawn, beds, fence line…)
Who:: Everyone who applied it (the crew riding that day starts checked) and the person supervising, with each one’s standing (certified, registered technician, trained, not certified or registered), license number, category and expiry, and the business license when license-keeping is switched on
Product:: Name, type, manufacturer, EPA registration number, state registration number, EUP / Section 18 / 24(c) number, active ingredients, N-P-K and slow-release %, formulation, restricted-use flag, signal word, re-entry interval, and a copy of the label on file
Amounts:: Rate applied (per area), area treated in sq ft, total product used, mix ratio, water or carrier, gallons of mix applied, lb of N and P per 1,000 sq ft
Job:: Target pest and the equipment used (both set on the job), service and crew
Weather:: From the nearest weather station at the start and finish (temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, gusts, rain in the last hour, conditions), and the conditions on site: the crew confirms the station reading or enters the wind, direction and temperature they measured
Your state:: Each job follows the rules of the state its property is in: Finish job asks for the details that state lists and waits until they are filled in, and the records export in that state’s column order
Kept beside the records:: Each person’s training, ID copies and certificates and what they are responsible for; neighbor requests and notices, registry notices and attempts, notices given to customers, signed waivers and contracts, each with a copy of the paper
Changes:: Corrections are saved as history; the earlier record is kept

See how it works on the job in chemical records and field tools, or read about GroundsQuote for lawn treatment companies.

Official sources

Everything on this page comes from these Florida sources, checked on October 10, 2026. Read them for the full text and any changes since.

Keep application records as the crew finishes the job

Set the chemicals each service uses once. The crew sees the planned amounts for each lawn, and finishing the job saves the record with the product, rate, area, applicator and weather.

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Questions

Do I need a license to fertilize lawns for hire in Florida?

Yes. Since January 1, 2014, anyone applying commercial fertilizer to an urban landscape needs FDACS’s Limited Certification for Urban Landscape Commercial Fertilizer Application. It does not cover pesticides, including weed and feed.

Are Florida’s fertilizer setbacks and no-fertilizer periods state law?

No. They come from county and city ordinances based on DEP’s model ordinance. Counties and cities in nutrient-impaired watersheds must adopt at least the model, and some adopt stricter rules, so check where the property is.

Can I keep Florida pest control records on a computer?

FDACS’s rule provides for electronic records: records kept electronically must be provided to FDACS on request.

Other states

Pesticide and fertilizer record rules by state →