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What They Do
About This Career
Mixes or applies pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or insecticides through sprays, dusts, vapors, soil incorporation, or chemical application on trees, shrubs, lawns, or crops. Usually requires specific training and state or federal certification.
This career is part of the Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources cluster Plant Systems pathway.
A person in this career:
- Mixes pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides for application to trees, shrubs, lawns, or botanical crops.
- Fills sprayer tanks with water and chemicals, according to formulas.
- Lifts, pushes, and swings nozzles, hoses, and tubes to direct spray over designated areas.
- Identifies lawn or plant diseases to determine the appropriate course of treatment.
- Covers areas to specified depths with pesticides, applying knowledge of weather conditions, droplet sizes, elevation-to-distance ratios, and obstructions.
- Starts motors and engages machinery, such as sprayer agitators or pumps or portable spray equipment.
- Connects hoses and nozzles selected according to terrain, distribution pattern requirements, types of infestations, and velocities.
- Cleans or services machinery to ensure operating efficiency, using water, gasoline, lubricants, or hand tools.
- Provides driving instructions to truck drivers to ensure complete coverage of designated areas, using hand and horn signals.
- Plants grass with seed spreaders, and operates straw blowers to cover seeded areas with mixtures of asphalt and straw.
Working Conditions and Physical Demands
People who do this job report that:
- You would often handle loads up to 50 lbs., sometimes up to 100 lbs. You will need a lot of strength at this level.
- Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
- Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
- Conditions are very hot (above 90 F) or very cold (under 32 F)
- Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
- Exposed to conditions such as high voltage electricity, combustibles, explosives, and chemicals more than once a month
- Sound and noise levels are loud and distracting
- Work in this occupation requires being outside most of the time
Working in this career involves (physical activities):
- Judging how far away an object is, or which of several objects is closer or farther away
- Seeing clearly up close
- Speaking clearly enough to be able to be understood by others
- Identifying and understanding the speech of another person
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying objects
Work Hours and Travel
Specialty and Similar Careers
Careers that are more detailed or close to this career:
- Chemical Applicator
- Integrated Pest Management Technician (IPM Technician)
- Lawn Specialist
- Lawn Technician
- Licensed Pesticide Applicator
- Pest Control Technician
- Pesticide Applicator
- Spray Applicator
- Spray Technician
- Tree and Shrub Technician
Every year the U.S. Department of Labor conducts national surveys of wage data by occupation in every state and in all industry divisions. These surveys are conducted through the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program.
The statistics collected for one year are published the next fall. For example, 2013 wage information was published in the fall of 2014.
There are over 800 occupations in the surveys, and these occupations cover the entire U.S. labor market. The surveys ask for reports in a scale of ranges for both hourly wages and annual wages.
In many cases, these occupations are broad enough to cover many more detailed specialties of an occupation. A specific occupation may be included in a broader occupational category for which labor market data is available. When you look at the statistics for a broad category, be aware that the salary data for a specific career may differ.
For more details about how wage information is collected and calculated by the U.S. Department of Labor, visit their website at http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm.
Every year the U.S. Department of Labor conducts a national survey of over 400,000
employers in every state and in all industry divisions. This survey is conducted
through the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program. Every other year the
department publishes outlook information based on these surveys.
Each outlook period covers 10 years. For example, in 2003 the outlook information
was published for 2004-2014. Employers are asked to report the number of employees
in about 770 different occupations that cover the entire U.S. labor market.
From this information, staffing patterns for different industries are established.
Industry growth is projected into the future based on past trends and current economic
conditions. Industry staffing patterns are then applied to the industry projections
to obtain occupational projections.
In many cases, these occupations are broad enough to cover many more detailed specialties
of an occupation. A specific occupation may be included in a broader occupational
category for which labor market data is available. When you look at the statistics
for a broad category, be aware that the employment data for a specific field may
differ.
For more details about how employment information is collected and calculated by
the U.S. Department of Labor, visit their website at http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.
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