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Guide 4 of 7

A general spray or a termite treatment: what each state's licence covers

General pest work and termite work are treated as different jobs: Queensland asks for a QBCC licence as well, New South Wales is phasing in a timber pest licence, and Victoria asks the customer to check that the licence's authorisations cover the job.

A pest control job drawn in the order the regulators describe it. A dark wedge narrows in eight steps: you see a pest, inspect, identify the pest, ask whether a pesticide is needed at all, prevent first, raise your concerns, a pre-treatment advice, targeted not general. It comes to a point at a registered pesticide used to its label, which forks into general pest work and termite work. From there a line runs on, ticked: stay out until it is dry, ask the re-entry time, tell your neighbours, its name and active constituent in writing, ask for its full name and safety data sheet, and it can linger for days, weeks or longer. Solid marks are law; open marks are a regulator's advice. Every mark names its state or NAT. Each mark opens its guide. NSW EPA: seeing one pest does not always mean control is needed. You see a pestNSW EPA Queensland Health lists what pest management technicians typically do: inspect the premises. InspectQLD Health Both regulators put identification before any treatment: identify the pest and its habitats, and identify it before deciding how to control it. Identify the pestNSW EPA QLD Health Queensland Health: in some cases, a pesticide treatment may not be necessary. Is a pesticide needed?QLD Health asks this NSW EPA: keeping pests from becoming a threat can carry little or no risk to people or the environment. Prevent firstNSW EPA Victoria: raise concerns such as pregnancy, young children or allergies with the operator before the work starts. Raise your concernsVIC Queensland law: before starting a pest control activity for a customer, a licensed technician must give the customer a pre-treatment pest control advice for the activity. Before startingQLD, law NSW EPA: targeted spraying is the fallback where watching shows other methods are not working, and a wide spray of a non-specific product is its last measure, after the others have failed. Targeted, not generalNSW EPA A registered pesticide, used to its label. NAT · NSW, VIC, QLD. Termites: QLD, a QBCC licence as well; NSW, a timber pest licence being phased in; VIC, check that the licence covers the job. A registered pesticide, used to its label NAT · NSW, VIC, QLD general pest termites Termites: QLD, a QBCC licence as well; NSW, a timber pest licence being phased in; VIC, check that the licence covers the job. Victoria: leave the premises while the pesticide is being mixed and applied, and stay out until it is dry; the same page moves pets out for the same stretch. Stay out until it is dry VIC WA Health: ask what the recommended waiting or re-entry time is, for people and pets. Ask the re-entry time for people and pets WA Victoria recommends telling neighbours before external treatments; NSW good practice says the same, especially where the pesticide has an odour, and some labels require notice. Tell your neighbours VIC · NSW Queensland law: the post-treatment advice is dated and signed, and states the name and the active constituent of each pesticide used. Its name and active constituent, in writing QLD, law NSW EPA asks the customer to ask for the full product name and the safety data sheet, which a pest controller must provide on request; Victoria asks for the full chemical name, which helps in an emergency. Ask for its full name and safety data sheet NSW · VIC Victoria: sprays used on surfaces and treatments for termites can stay in the environment for days, weeks or longer after application. It can linger for days, weeks or longer VIC Where a step carries a state's name, that is the regulator who says it. Your own state's or territory's regulator governs your job.
The same pest control job drawn upright: eight bands stepping in as the job narrows, from seeing a pest to spraying only where it is needed, then a registered pesticide used to its label, then the fork into general pest work and termite work, then the line of waiting and naming that runs on after the van has gone. NSW EPA: seeing one pest does not always mean control is needed. You see a pest NSW EPA Queensland Health lists what pest management technicians typically do: inspect the premises. Inspect QLD Health Both regulators put identification before any treatment: identify the pest and its habitats, and identify it before deciding how to control it. Identify the pest NSW EPA · QLD Health Queensland Health: in some cases, a pesticide treatment may not be necessary. Is a pesticide needed? Queensland Health asks this NSW EPA: keeping pests from becoming a threat can carry little or no risk to people or the environment. Prevent first NSW EPA Victoria: raise concerns such as pregnancy, young children or allergies with the operator before the work starts. Raise your concerns VIC Queensland law: before starting a pest control activity for a customer, a licensed technician must give the customer a pre-treatment pest control advice for the activity. A pre‑treatmentadvice QLD, law NSW EPA: targeted spraying is the fallback where watching shows other methods are not working, and a wide spray of a non-specific product is its last measure, after the others have failed. Targeted, notgeneral NSW EPA A registered pesticide, used to its label. NAT · NSW, VIC, QLD. Termites: QLD, a QBCC licence as well; NSW, a timber pest licence being phased in; VIC, check that the licence covers the job. A registered pesticide, used to its label NAT · NSW, VIC, QLD general pest termites Termites: QLD, a QBCC licence as well; NSW, a timber pest licence being phased in; VIC, check that the licence covers the job. Victoria: leave the premises while the pesticide is being mixed and applied, and stay out until it is dry; the same page moves pets out for the same stretch. Stay out until it is dry VIC WA Health: ask what the recommended waiting or re-entry time is, for people and pets. Ask the re-entry time for people and pets WA Victoria recommends telling neighbours before external treatments; NSW good practice says the same, especially where the pesticide has an odour, and some labels require notice. Tell your neighbours VIC · NSW Queensland law: the post-treatment advice is dated and signed, and states the name and the active constituent of each pesticide used. Its name and active constituent, in writing QLD, law NSW EPA asks the customer to ask for the full product name and the safety data sheet, which a pest controller must provide on request; Victoria asks for the full chemical name, which helps in an emergency. Ask for its full name and safety data sheet NSW · VIC Victoria: sprays used on surfaces and treatments for termites can stay in the environment for days, weeks or longer after application. It can linger for days, weeks or longer VIC Where a step carries a state's name, that is the regulator who says it. Your own state's or territory's regulator governs your job.

General information from Queensland Health, the Queensland Building and Construction Commission, the NSW EPA and Victoria's health service. It is not advice about your own property, your own treatment or your own quote.

Queensland: a QBCC licence as well

Queensland Health's customer fact sheet separates the two kinds of job. Where the work is termite advice, a report about a termite management system or an infestation, or the installation of such a system in a new building, it tells a customer to check that the technician holds a licence issued by the Queensland Building and Construction Commission. The sheet's own words are that this licence is "required in addition to" the pest management technician licence.

The same sheet repeats it for the day of the visit: if the work involves termite management or control, ask to see the QBCC licence. That makes the termite job the one place on this site where two licences are checked instead of one.

The QBCC's own guide for homeowners and builders explains what those licences are. The classes needed for termite management include Termite Management - Chemical and Termite Management - Physical, and the physical class is restricted to particular systems, such as graded stone or stainless steel mesh, rather than to a product.

The commission also ties the licence to advice and paperwork, not only to work: a contractor has to hold one of those licences to provide advice or reports about termite management systems or infestations.

New South Wales: one licence today, another being phased in

New South Wales makes the separation differently: in time rather than in two cards. In the EPA's present wording, the pest management technician licence is the one that covers commercial termite treatments, with a newer timber pest management technician licence being brought in gradually.

The newer licence is described as the one needed, from the dates the EPA's page prints, for work against termites and other timber pests with pesticides. The EPA notes that it covers ordinary pest control too, so it is a wider licence rather than a narrow one.

What changes with it is the training behind the licence: the extra step to a timber pest management technician licence is nationally recognised training in timber pest control on top of what a pest management technician already completes.

One boundary is worth knowing before any of that matters. The EPA says that timber pest inspections alone, with no pesticide used, and termite barriers that contain no pesticides, do not require its licence at all. A report about termites and the licensed use of a termiticide are not the same thing.

Victoria: the authorisation on the back of the card

Victoria's health service describes the licence as authorising the operator to use certain types of pesticides, with the authorisation printed on the back of the card. The card, in other words, is not only a name and a photograph: it carries the scope of the work.

Its advice to a customer follows from that: a pest control licence can carry up to three different authorisations, and the licence should be checked to see whether the authorisation matches the job at hand.

The state's Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 is where the requirement sits: without a licence that names that type or class of pesticide as one its holder may use, the business must not use it. The authorisation on the card is how that requirement is met for a particular job.

The three states side by side

What termite work needs, in each state's own words
StateWhat its regulator says the termite job needs
QLDA QBCC licence in addition to the pest management technician licence, for termite advice, reports or a termite management system.
QLD, the classesTermite Management - Chemical, and Termite Management - Physical, the second restricted to systems such as graded stone or stainless steel mesh.
NSWA new timber pest management technician licence, still being phased in, needed for pesticides used against termites and other timber pests.
NSW, the trainingThe pest management technician training, plus additional training in timber pest control that is nationally recognised.
VICUp to three authorisations may be listed on the licence, and the customer is asked to check that the licence covers the job.

Read across the table, the three states handle termite work in three ways: a second licence with its own classes in Queensland, a new licence and extra training being phased in across New South Wales, and, in Victoria, up to three authorisations listed on the licence, which the customer is asked to check against the job.

Why the two jobs are kept apart

The two jobs are kept apart because of what separates them: on one side, a pesticide applied where the pest is; on the other, a termite management job that may involve advice, a report, a system built into a building, or a chemical under a licence class of its own. The commission's point is that advice and reports sit behind a licence too, not only treatment.

For a reader holding a quote, the split between them is the place to look for a mismatch. Where the work is a termite treatment, the licence to ask about is the one for termite work, and each state above gives a different way to check it: Queensland with a second licence, New South Wales with the licence the work sits under as the phase-in progresses, and Victoria with the authorisations on the card.

In New South Wales, the EPA says timber pest inspections that use no pesticide, and termite barriers that contain no pesticides, need no licence from it.

In Queensland, the split runs through the licences themselves: Queensland Health's fact sheet says three different pest management licences can be issued in the state, and its own description of the extra licence for termite advice, reports and new systems is what decides which side of the split a job falls on.

A reader with a quote in hand can let the work named on it decide the licence to ask about: for termites, a QBCC licence as well in Queensland, the licence the work sits under while New South Wales phases in its timber pest licence, or the authorisations on the card in Victoria.