Mo. Rev. Stat. § 281.020

Current with changes from the 2024 Legislative Session

Section 281.020 - [Effective until 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 commercial applicator", any individual, whether or not he is a private applicator with respect to some uses, who is certified by the director as authorized to use, supervise the use of, or determine the need for the use of, any pesticide, whether classified for restricted use or for general use, while he 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;

(b)"Certified noncommercial applicator", any individual, whether or not he 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 him or his employer;

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

(d)"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 his duties as an official or employee of any agency of the state of Missouri or any political subdivision thereof, or any other governmental agency;

(e)"Private applicator", any person not holding a certified private applicator's license who shall be required to obtain a permit for the use of any restricted use pesticide for the purposes of producing any agricultural commodity on property owned or rented by him or his employer or on the property of another person, if used without compensation other than trading of personal services between producers of agricultural commodities, such permit shall authorize the one-time emergency purchase of a restricted use pesticide for the purpose of a one-time emergency use of that pesticide;

(f)"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 this chapter, is authorized by the director to determine the need for the use of any pesticide as well as to the use of any pesticide;

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

(6)"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;

(7)"Device", any instrument or contrivance, other than a firearm, which 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;

(8)"Environment" includes water, air, land, and all plants and man and other animals living therein, and the interrelationships which exist among these;

(9)"Equipment" means 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;

(10)"Fungus", any nonchlorophyll-bearing thallophyte, that is, any nonchlorophyll-bearing plant of a lower order than mosses and liverworts, as, for example, 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;

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

(12)"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, as, for example, beetles, bugs, bees, flies, and to other allied classes of arthropods whose members are wingless and usually have more than six legs, as, for example, spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and wood lice;

(13)"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;

(14)"Misuse of a pesticide", a use of any registered 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;

(15)"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;

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

(17)"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, which is normally considered to be a pest;

(18)"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;

(19)"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;

(20)"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 which are commonly known as vitamin-hormone horticultural products, intended for improvement, maintenance, survival, health and propagation of plants, and which are not for pest destruction and are nontoxic, nonpoisonous in the undiluted package concentration;

(21)"Private applicator permit", a written certificate, issued by the director or his authorized agent, authorizing the purchase, possession or use of certain restricted use pesticides by a private applicator. Such permit shall authorize the one-time emergency purchase of a restricted use pesticide for the purpose of a one-time emergency use of such pesticide;

(22)"Restricted 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, the director determines may cause, without additional regulatory restrictions, unreasonable adverse effects on the environment, including injury to the applicator;

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

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

(25)"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;

(26)"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;

(27)"Use", mixing, applying, storing or disposing of a pesticide;

(28)"Weed", any plant which grows where not wanted; and

(29)"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, SB 26,s A, eff. 8/28/2021.

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 1/1/2025.