PestBossPro Blog — Chemical Records & Compliance

Setting Up Pest Control Products: Active Ingredient, EPA Reg. No., Method and Rates

An application record pulls most of its product details from one place: the product list. If the product list is right, every record built from it starts right. If a product has a typo in its EPA reg. no., every record that uses it carries the same typo. An hour spent setting up products carefully pays off on every treatment for years.

The Product List Feeds Every Record

The full list of fields on an application record is laid out in What Goes in a Pest Control Application Record: Every Field, Explained. Several of those fields, the product name, active ingredient, EPA reg. no. and rate, come straight from the product you set up.

In PestBossPro, each product carries its name, its active ingredient, its EPA reg. no., its application method, its rates and a Track Chemicals flag. When a tech completes a treatment that used that product, those details land on the record without the tech typing any of them.

Work From the Label, Not Memory

Set up each product with the actual label in front of you, or the current label from the manufacturer. Not last year's sticky note, not what the supplier said on the phone. Labels change, and the label is the law.

A good habit is to keep a folder, paper or digital, with the current label and safety data sheet for every product you stock. When you set up or update a product in the software, check it against that folder. When a new jug arrives with a revised label, check again.

Name and Active Ingredient

Product name. Use the name exactly as it appears on the label, including any version or formulation in the name. If you carry two formulations of the same active ingredient, such as a concentrate and a granule, they are two products, not one.

Active ingredient. Enter it as the label lists it: bifenthrin, fipronil, deltamethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin, imidacloprid, pyriproxyfen, and so on. Customers increasingly search active ingredients themselves, and inspectors often think in terms of active ingredients rather than product names. If a product has more than one active ingredient, list each one.

EPA Reg. No.

The EPA registration number identifies the exact registered product. It is printed on the label. Enter it carefully, digit by digit, including any hyphens, and read it back once.

The record will show the EPA reg. no. if you entered it on the product. If you leave it blank, the record will be missing it. Many record rules ask for it, so treat a blank EPA reg. no. as unfinished setup. A quick review of your product list for blanks is worth doing before your busy season starts.

Application Method and Rates

Application method. How the product is applied: broadcast spray, band or perimeter spray, crack-and-crevice, spot treatment, granular spread, dust, bait placement. The method should match what the label allows for the sites you treat.

Rates. The rate you use, inside the label's range for the target pest and site. Many labels give a range, with a lower rate for maintenance and a higher rate for heavier pressure. Record the rate you actually mix at, not the label's maximum. If you use different rates for different situations, it can make sense to build separate mixes for them, covered in Building a Pest Control Tank Mix With Rates Per Gallon.

The software stores the rates you enter; it does not check them against a label for you. Getting the rate right is the job of the licensed person setting it up.

The Track Chemicals Flag

Each product has a Track Chemicals flag. When it is on, treatments that use the product get an application record. When it is off, they do not. Most companies turn it on for every pesticide they apply and leave it off for non-pesticide items, like replacement bait station housings or monitoring traps without any product in them. The next guide covers how to decide.

Keeping the List Clean

Product lists drift over time. A few habits keep yours accurate:

• One person owns it. Usually the owner or the licensed qualifier. Techs can request changes but should not edit products themselves.
• Review it each season. Before spring, go through every product against current labels.
• Retire, do not rename. If you stop using a product, stop adding it to mixes rather than renaming it into something else. Old records should keep pointing at what was really applied.
• No duplicates. Two entries for the same product split your chemical reports in half.

Products are the foundation. Mixes, the tech app and chemical reports all build on them. For how it all fits together, see the PestBossPro chemical tracking software page.