Mo. Rev. Stat. § 281.020

Current with changes from the 2024 Legislative Session

Section 281.020 - [Effective 1/1/2025] Definitions

As used in sections 281.010 to 281.115, the following terms mean:

(1)"Animal", all vertebrate and invertebrate species, including but not limited to man and other mammals, birds, fish, and shellfish;

(2)"Applicator, operator or technician":

(a)"Certified applicator", includes any certified commercial applicator, certified noncommercial applicator, certified private applicator, certified provisional private applicator, or certified public operator;

(b)"Certified commercial applicator", any individual, whether or not the individual is a private applicator with respect to some uses, who is certified by the director as authorized to use, supervise the use of, determine the need for the use of, or supervise the determination of need for any pesticide, whether classified for restricted use or for general use, while the individual is engaged in the business of using pesticides on the lands of another as a direct service to the public in exchange for a fee or compensation;

(c)"Certified noncommercial applicator", any individual, whether or not the individual is a private applicator with respect to some uses, who is certified by the director as authorized to use, or to supervise the use of, any pesticide which is classified for restricted use only on lands owned or rented by the individual or the individual's employer;

(d)"Certified private applicator", any individual who is certified by the director as authorized to use any pesticide that is classified for restricted use for purposes of producing any agricultural commodity on property owned or rented by the individual or the individual's employer or on the property of another person, if used without compensation other than trading of personal services between producers of agricultural commodities;

(e)"Certified provisional private applicator", any individual who is sixteen or seventeen years of age, an immediate family member of a certified private applicator, and certified by the director to use any pesticide that is classified for restricted use for purposes of producing any agricultural commodity on property owned or rented by the individual's immediate family member, so* long as the following requirements are met:

a. The restricted use pesticide (RUP) is not a fumigant;

b. The restricted use pesticide (RUP) does not contain sodium cyanide or sodium fluoroacetate;

c. The individual does and will not apply any restricted use pesticide (RUP) using aerial application equipment;

d. The individual does and will not supervise the use of any restricted use pesticide (RUP); and

e. The individual does and will not purchase any restricted use pesticide (RUP);

(f)"Certified public operator", any individual who is certified by the director as authorized to use, or to supervise the use of, any pesticide classified for restricted use in the performance of the individual's duties as an official or employee of any agency of the state of Missouri or any political subdivision thereof, or any other governmental agency;

(g)"Noncertified restricted use pesticide (RUP) applicator", any person who is not certified in accordance with sections 281.010 to 281.115 who uses or determines the need for the use of restricted use pesticides under the direct supervision of a certified commercial applicator or uses restricted use pesticides under the direct supervision of a certified noncommercial applicator or certified public operator;

(h)"Private applicator", any person not holding a certified private applicator's license or certified provisional private applicator's license who uses general use pesticides or minimum risk pesticides for the purposes of producing any agricultural commodity on property owned or rented by the person or the person's employer or on the property of another person, if used without compensation other than trading of personal services between producers of agricultural commodities;

(i)"Pesticide technician", any individual working under the direct supervision of a commercial applicator certified in categories as specified by regulation, and who having met the competency requirements of sections 281.010 to 281.115, is authorized by the director to determine the need for the use of any pesticide as well as to the use of any pesticide;

(j)"Pesticide technician trainee", any individual working in the physical presence and under the direct supervision of a certified commercial applicator to gain the required on-the-job training in preparation for obtaining a pesticide technician's license;

(3)"Beneficial insects", those insects that, during their life cycle, are effective pollinators of plants, are parasites or predators of pests, or are otherwise beneficial;

(4)"Defoliant", any substance or mixture of substances intended for causing the leaves or foliage to drop from a plant, with or without causing abscission;

(5)"Department" or "department of agriculture", the state department of agriculture, and when by sections 281.010 to 281.115 the department of agriculture is charged to perform a duty, the director of the department of agriculture is authorized to perform such duty;

(6)"Desiccant", any substance or mixture of substances intended for artificially accelerating the drying of plant tissue;

(7)"Determining the need for the use of any pesticide", the act of inspecting land for the presence of pests for the purpose of contracting for their control or prevention through the use of pesticides in categories as specified by regulation;

(8)"Device", any instrument or contrivance, other than a firearm, that is intended for trapping, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest or any other form of plant or animal life, other than man and other than bacteria, viruses, or other microorganisms on or in living man or other living animals, but not including equipment used for the application of pesticides when sold separately therefrom;

(9)"Director", the director of the department of agriculture or the director's designee;

(10)"Distribute", to sell, offer for sale, hold for sale, deliver for transportation in intrastate commerce, or transport in intrastate commerce;

(11)"Environment", includes, but is not limited to, water, air, land, and all plants and man and other animals living therein, and the interrelationships that exist among these;

(12)"Equipment", any type of ground, water, or aerial equipment or contrivance using motorized, mechanical, or pressurized power and used to apply any pesticide on land and anything that may be growing, habitating, or stored on or in such land, but shall not include any pressurized hand-sized household apparatus used to apply any pesticide, or any equipment or contrivance of which the person who is applying the pesticide is the source of power or energy in making such pesticide application;

(13)"Fungus", any nonchlorophyll-bearing thallophyte, which is any nonchlorophyll-bearing plant of a lower order than mosses and liverworts, such as rust, smut, mildew, mold, yeast, and bacteria, except those on or in living man or other living animals, and except those on or in processed food, beverages, or pharmaceuticals;

(14)"General use pesticide", any pesticide, when applied in accordance with its directions for use, warnings, and cautions, and for the uses for which it is registered, or for one or more of such uses, or in accordance with a widespread and commonly recognized practice, that will not generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment;

(15)"Immediate family", familial relationships limited to the spouse, parents, stepparents, foster parents, father-in-law, mother-in-law, children, stepchildren, foster children, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandparents, brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and first cousins. As used in this subdivision, "first cousin" means the child of a parent's sibling, i.e., the child of an aunt or uncle;

(16)"Individual", any responsible, natural human being;

(17)"Insect", any of the numerous small invertebrate animals generally having the body more or less obviously segmented, for the most part belonging to the class Insecta, comprising six-legged, usually winged forms, such as beetles, bugs, bees, flies, and to other allied classes of arthropods whose members are wingless and usually have more than six legs, such as spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and wood lice;

(18)"Land", all land and water areas, including airspace, and all plants, animals, structures, buildings, contrivances, and machinery, appurtenant thereto or situated thereon, fixed or mobile, including any used for transportation;

(19)"Minimum risk pesticide", any pesticide product exempted under 40 CFR Section 152.25(f) from registration requirements under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), as amended;

(20)"Misuse of a pesticide", a use of any pesticide in a manner inconsistent with its labeling; provided, that the use of a lesser concentration than provided on the label shall not be considered the misuse of a pesticide when used strictly for agricultural purposes, and when requested in writing by the person on whose behalf a pesticide is used;

(21)"Nematode", invertebrate animals of the phylum Nemathelminthes and class Nematoda, that is, unsegmented round worms with elongated, fusiform, or sac-like bodies covered with cuticle, and inhabiting soil, water, plants, or plant parts; may also be called nemas or eelworms;

(22)"Nontarget organism", any plant, animal, or organism other than the target pests that a pesticide is intended to affect;

(23)"Person", any individual, partnership, association, fiduciary, corporation, or any organized group of persons whether incorporated or not;

(24)"Pest":

(a) Any insect, snail, slug, rodent, nematode, fungus, weed; or

(b) Any other form of terrestrial or aquatic plant or animal life or virus, bacterium, or other microorganism, except viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms on or in living man or other living animals, that is normally considered to be a pest;

(25)"Pesticide":

(a) Any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest; or

(b) Any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant;

(26)"Pesticide dealer", any individual who is engaged in the business of distributing, selling, offering for sale, or holding for sale at retail, or direct wholesale to the end user, any pesticide classified for restricted use;

(27)"Pesticide dealership", any location or outlet where restricted use pesticides are held for sale, distributed, or sold;

(28)"Plant regulator", any substance or mixture of substances, intended, through physiological action, for accelerating or retarding the rate of growth or rate of maturation, or for otherwise altering the behavior of plants or the produce thereof, but shall not include substances to the extent that they are intended as plant nutrients, trace elements, nutritional chemicals, plant inoculants, or soil amendments. The term "plant regulator" does not include any of those nutrient mixtures or soil amendments that are commonly known as vitamin-hormone horticultural products, intended for improvement, maintenance, survival, health, and propagation of plants, and that are not for pest destruction and are nontoxic, nonpoisonous in the undiluted package concentration;

(29)"Restricted use pesticide" or "(RUP)", any pesticide when applied in accordance with its directions for use, warnings, and cautions and for the uses for which it is registered, or for one or more of such uses, or in accordance with a widespread and commonly recognized practice, the director determines may cause, without additional regulatory restrictions, unreasonable adverse effects on the environment, including injury to the applicator;

(30)"Sale", selling or offering for sale any pesticide;

(31)"Snails" or "slugs" includes all harmful mollusks;

(32)"Unreasonable adverse effects on the environment", any unreasonable risk to man or the environment, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any pesticide;

(33)"Under the direct supervision of a certified applicator", when a pesticide is used by a competent person acting under the instructions and control of a certified applicator who is available if and when needed, even though such certified applicator is not physically present at the time and place the pesticide is used;

(34)"Use", mixing, loading, or applying any pesticide; cleaning pesticide equipment; or storing or disposing of pesticide containers, pesticides, spray mix, equipment wash waters, and/or other pesticide-containing materials;

(35)"Weed", any plant that grows where not wanted;

(36)"Wildlife", all living things that are neither human, domesticated, or pests, including, but not limited to, mammals, protected birds, and aquatic life.

§ 281.020, RSMo

Amended by 2021 Mo. Laws, HB 476,s A, eff. 1/1/2025.

Amended by 2021 Mo. Laws, SB 26,s A, eff. 1/1/2025.

L. 1974 S.B. 431 § 3, A.L. 1977 H.B. 665, A.L. 1985 H.B. 370, A.L. 1988 H.B. 1384
Effective 1/1/1990

This section is set out more than once. See also RSMo s 281.020, effective until 1/1/2025.