John Bedford

How to find your local Pesticide Inspector was talked about during the 2018 MISC Annual Meeting treatment discussion/brainstorming session on 12/11/18. Here is how you can get in touch with your pesticide inspector: Call MDARD's Customer Service Center's 800 number and specify that you need the contact information for a pesticide inspector in a given county. Call center staff will be able to determine the inspector based on our current mapping of districts. Some districts for pesticide inspectors divide counties or are in more than one county, so you may need to be more specific in some cases.

Planned Use Inspections were talked about during the 2018 MISC Annual Meeting treatment discussion/brainstorming session on 12/11/18. Here is a description of what one is: A Planned Use Inspection (PUI) is unlike MDARD’s complaint-based investigations or entity-type inspections (such as schools and golf courses). PUIs are scheduled by an inspector with a firm that is often new to the pesticide application industry, has just obtained a pesticide application business license from MDARD for the first time, or would like a refresher on state and/or federal pesticide use laws, among many other reasons. The inspection is intended to be educational; inspectors will review all applicable pesticide laws with the firm and inspect operations and recordkeeping to ensure all pesticide-related aspects of the business are in compliance. The PUI is non-confrontational to encourage meaningful dialogue between the interviewees and the inspector. Any deficiencies found will be addressed through typically low-level enforcement such as stop orders or warning letters, and the inspector will work with the firm to ensure corrective actions resolve the issues identified.