Pesticide Handlers Job Description

The Pesticide Handler mixes or applies pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or insecticides through sprays, dusts, vapors, soil incorporation or chemical application on trees, shrubs, lawns, or botanical crops. The Pesticide Handler is usually required t have specific training and State or Federal certification.

Task Requirement for Pesticide Handler

• The Pesticide Handler fills sprayer tanks with water and chemicals, according to formulas.

• The Pesticide Handler mixes pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides for application to trees, shrubs, lawns, or botanical crops.

• The Pesticide Handler covers areas to specified depths with pesticides, applying knowledge of weather conditions, droplet sizes, elevation to distance ratios, and obstructions.

• The Pesticide Handler lifts, pushes, and swing nozzles, hoses, and tubes in order to direct spray over designated areas.

• The Pesticide Handler starts motors and engages machinery, such as sprayer agitators and pumps or portable spray equipment.

• The Pesticide Handler connects hoses and nozzles selected according to terrain, distribution pattern requirements, types of infestations, and velocities.

• The Pesticide Handler cleans and services machinery to ensure operating efficiency, using water, gasoline, lubricants, and hand tools.

• The Pesticide Handler provides driving instructions to truck drivers to ensure complete coverage of designated areas, using hand and horn signals.

• The Pesticide Handler plants grass with seed spreaders, and operates straw blowers to cover seeded areas with mixtures of asphalt and straw.

The Pesticide Handler needs knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs, assessments, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction. The Pesticide Handler needs knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repairs, and maintenance. The Pesticide Handler needs knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications. The Pesticide Handler needs knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies, to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property and institutions.

Skill requirement for Pesticide Handler

• The Pesticide Handler gives full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.

• The Pesticide Handler performs routine maintenance on equipment and determines when and what kind of maintenance is needed.

• The Pesticide Handler must be able to manage their time and the time of others in order to get the job done in a timely manner.

• The Pesticide Handler determines the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.

• The Pesticide Handler considers the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.

• The Pesticide Handler talks to others to convey information effectively.

• The Pesticide Handler assesses performance done by his crew as well as his own performance in order to determine better methods to get the job function done.

• The Pesticide Handler must understand the implications of new information for both current and future problem solving and decision making.

• The Pesticide Handler must understand written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

• The Pesticide Handler actively looks for ways to help people.

Ability require for Pesticide Handlers

• The Pesticide Handler needs the ability to keep hand and arm steady while moving the arm or while holding the arm and hand in one position.

• The Pesticide Handler needs the ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.

• The Pesticide Handler needs the ability to see details at close range within a few feet of the observer.

• The Pesticide Handler needs the ability to quickly move the hand, the hand together with the arm, or the two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.

• The Pesticide Handler needs the ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

• The Pesticide Handler needs the ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.

• The Pesticide Handler needs the ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

• The Pesticide Handler needs the ability to arrange things in a certain order or patter according to a specific rule or set of rules such as patterns of numbers, letters, words, picture, and mathematical operations.