Connecticut pesticide license for lawn care and landscaping
Checked October 2026
Connecticut asks a lawn care business for two things from DEEP: a certified supervisor in category 3A Ornamental and Turf, and a business registration. The supervisor exam is $200, a written test at 75 percent plus an oral exam in Hartford for most categories, and the certificate is $285 for five years. The $240 yearly registration fee applies only once the business employs or subcontracts a second certified applicator. Operators sit a 60-question exam.
A Connecticut lawn company registers for free until it hires a second certified applicator. With exactly one certificate holder, the business registers with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and pays nothing. Add a second certified applicator, employed or subcontracted, and the $240 annual fee applies. We read DEEP's pages and PDFs on 2026-10-01, and the fees are as they state them.
The registration fee starts with the second certificate
DEEP's business page says every pesticide application business must register, and lists "lawn services" among its examples. A business that employs only one certified supervisory applicator registers online and claims the single-applicant exemption. If it employs or subcontracts any additional certified applicators, supervisory or operational, it pays $240. Arborist businesses get no such exemption. The certificate of registration runs September 1 through August 31 and renews yearly, and a business with several offices or names registers each one.
Violating the business registration law can cost up to $5,000 for each day of violation, per Section 22a-66h as DEEP quotes it. Once you are registered, the PMBR number DEEP assigns goes on every vehicle, newspaper and phone-directory ad and written contract.
Supervisor decides, operator sprays
The supervisor page says a company must have a certified supervisor, who decides whether to apply, what product, where, how much and when. That person must be on site during the application or leave written instructions for the certified operator, and the operator may not treat anything the instructions leave out. DEEP's statute clarifications, a page dated 2011, list what instructions contain: both certification numbers, the pest, the product and directions for use. Preprinted instructions are allowed if they can be customized.
Operators, which Connecticut also calls junior operators, are anyone hired to apply pesticide in other than a supervisory role. A one-person shop needs only the supervisor certificate.
Category 3A is the lawn certification
Custom Ground Pest Control splits into 3A Ornamental and Turf, 3B golf course, 3C interior plantscape and 3D arborist. A lawn and shrub business wants 3A. DEEP's category clarification draws the line with arborists: a tree is a single-stem plant that reaches more than 5 meters at maturity, and the arborist treats those. Generally, plants reachable from the ground with hand-operated equipment, not a backpack mist blower, are 3A work. A 3A holder may also spray outdoors for ticks and for clover mites or earwigs on a foundation.
Seven steps, with an oral exam in Hartford
- Be 18 and study. Required material is listed on the 3A page, including a Cornell ornamentals and turf manual and a UConn Extension guide for ornamentals. UConn Extension runs a 3A course in fall (October to December) and winter (January to March).
- Create an account on the state's E-License site and register for the exam. The exam must be taken within 90 days of paying the $200 DEEP fee.
- Wait three to ten days for the proctoring service, Everblue, to email you. Pay its fee, $29 per exam per the application instructions and the operator page, although the supervisor page still shows $21 with a note that it will rise to $29, and you have 60 days to take the exam online.
- Pass the written exam: up to three hours, 75 percent to pass, with core and safety questions folded into each category.
- Sit the oral exam, which most categories include. DEEP emails one to four weeks after you pass the written part. It is in person at 79 Elm Street in Hartford and runs 20 to 30 minutes, with 2 to 4 board members asking about pest identification, regulations and product choice.
- Pay the $285 licensing fee, good for five years.
- Register the business.
The $200 exam fee covers up to three supervisor categories, and a retest costs another $200. Wait at least 30 days to retake the same category.
A solo owner's first outlay is $514
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Supervisor exam (up to 3 categories) | $200, plus $29 proctoring per category exam |
| Supervisor certificate | $285 for five years |
| Operator exam | $200, plus $29 proctoring |
| Operator certificate renewal | $80 every five years |
| Business registration | $240 a year, waived for a single-applicant business |
A solo owner's first outlay for one category is $514 with the $29 figure, our sum of $200, $29 and $285. The operator exam is 60 multiple-choice questions at 80 percent, in English only. Connecticut's statute sets operational certification at $80, and the operator page states the $80 as a five-year renewal.
Supervisors renew every five years with 12 credits
Supervisor certificates expire January 31 of the fifth year. Renewal needs 12 continuing education credits per category, every Annual Pesticide Use Summary Report you have not filed, and $285. Those summaries are due each January 31 for the year before, per DEEP's statutes PDF, and DEEP may refuse to renew if you skip them. Records of each application, including the supervisor and operator numbers, product, amount, place, pest and site, are kept five years. Changes to a business registration are due within 30 days.
Neighbors on the registry get a call, and schools are off limits
Under Section 22a-66a, a business must tell the customer about the state's notification registry before agreeing to an application, and hand over the product name, registration number, active ingredient and signal word from the label. When an application is within 100 yards of a property line, abutting neighbors on the registry get at least two notification attempts, made no later than 24 hours before the application. DEEP's registry page is dated 2016.
The same statutes bar lawn care pesticides on the grounds of preschools and schools with students through grade eight, day care centers and municipal playgrounds, with emergency exceptions. The day care ban does not apply to a family day care home whose grounds the licensee does not own or control.
No insurance figure appears on DEEP's pages
No DEEP page we read states an insurance minimum or a bond for lawn work, and the application instructions ask for none. Your policy is a matter for your contracts. The endorsement lawn spraying needs is explained in the pesticide applicator insurance guide. DEEP's pages also do not address fertilizer-only work, and the hub compares the other states in a table.