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Pest control Sutherland ShireSutherland Shire, NSW
Guide 1 of 5

Who may treat your house in NSW, and what must they give you?

One job, every duty in order: the licence checked before anyone starts, the notice owed when a home adjoins a school or a childcare centre, and the record kept afterwards.

A Sutherland Shire yard meeting the bush, drawn side on: the house with its roof cavity, the garden, the timber boundary fence, the national park across it and the river at the far edge, with what lives at each place. Your side The bush side Possum in the roof cavity Termites at the wall and floor line Snake in the garden Cane toads of Taren Point a breeding population found in 2010 eradicated after several years Foxes and deer in the bush Towra Point: a 1080 fox baiting program 1080 is lethal to cats and dogs Royal National Park: deer control closes some areas sunset to sunrise, Monday to Thursday Funnel-webs males wander into backyards and pools the Georges River ends the main range of the Sydney funnel-web The same yard standing up: the house at the top, then the garden, the boundary fence across the page, the bush, and the river at the foot, with what lives at each place beside it. Your side The bush side Possum in the roof cavity Termites at the wall and floor line Snake in the garden Cane toads of Taren Point a breeding population found in 2010, eradicated after several years Foxes and deer in the bush Towra Point's 1080 fox program Royal National Park: deer control closes some areas, sunset to sunrise, Monday to Thursday Funnel-webs and the Georges River the Georges River ends the main range of the Sydney funnel-web
Termite treatment in the walls or the floor is work for a person licensed by the NSW EPA, and from the dates the EPA sets it needs a timber pest management licence.

Start with the licence

NSW law puts pesticide work on a licensed footing. A licence is required for the work the regulations prescribe, and the regulator that issues pest management technician licences is the state's Environment Protection Authority. The EPA places every pesticide licence it issues on a public register, so a licence can be looked up from a phone or a laptop. The search on it takes a licence holder's name, a licence number, or any combination of terms, to confirm a controller is licensed. The check is set out in full on the EPA's page for engaging a pest management technician.

The EPA's own advice to a householder is to see the licence before agreeing to the work, not after. If a person or a licence cannot be found, or a controller cannot produce the licence, the EPA's 24/7 Environment Line is 131 555. Unlicensed work can be prosecuted, and the EPA gives the maximum penalty for a serious case as $60,000.

Holders of some comparable licences from other states and territories may be able to work in NSW through automatic mutual recognition, which does not extend to licences from Queensland.

Which licence, for which work

There are separate licences for the people who do this work, and the EPA sets out what each one covers. A pest management technician licence is the one that covers applying pesticides for a fee or reward, fumigants excepted, whether the client is a household or a public authority. Work on termites and other timber pests is moving to the timber pest management licence, which also allows ordinary pest control jobs. A technician whose 5 year pest management technician licence was held before 17 December 2021 can keep doing commercial timber pest treatments on it until the later of its expiry date and 17 December 2023. The EPA describes the whole set as training, licence, notification and record-keeping requirements, which is a fair description of the rest of this guide.

One boundary is worth knowing, because it decides whether a licence is involved at all. Timber pest inspections that use no pesticides, and termite barriers that contain none, do not need an EPA licence. The same goes for a person fitting a dual purpose moisture and termite barrier that does contain a pesticide, if that person is already licensed to do the work under the NSW Home Building Act.

Underneath all of it sits a simpler rule: in NSW an agricultural and veterinary (agvet) chemical may only be possessed, prepared or used if the APVMA has registered it or an APVMA permit covers it. The division of labour is exact: the APVMA assesses and registers pesticides and regulates them up to the point of sale, and beyond that point, in this state, the EPA regulates their use, storage and disposal.

The notice owed next door

The duty that surprises Shire households is the one about sensitive places. Under the Pesticides Regulation 2017, a person doing fumigation work or pest management technician work must make sure that a pesticide use notice reaches the person who has the care, control or management of a sensitive place no less than 5 working days before a pesticide is sprayed outdoors, or injected into the ground outdoors, within 20 metres of it, with hospitals the one exception the regulation names.

The EPA translates that for householders: a technician applying certain pesticides outside, beside a place such as a nursing home or a school, has to tell whoever runs it 5 working days ahead. Why places like these are singled out is on the same page: the people who attend them may be more sensitive to pesticides than most.

Two limits keep the rule in proportion. Under the sensitive-place rule, where no sensitive place adjoins the premises no notice is required (the common areas of a unit block carry a notice rule of their own), though the EPA calls it good practice to tell the neighbours anyway when sensitive people live next door. And an emergency is treated differently: an infestation of biting or dangerous pests (wasps, bees, venomous spiders, rodents, bird mites) does not carry the 5 working day notice, though notification still comes before the job.

The notice itself has to be usable. It may be posted, and a sender does not have to verify that it arrived, though the EPA advises allowing extra time for mail. A copy of it has to be kept for at least 3 years by whoever was required to give or display it.

One Shire job, in the order the duties fall

A house near a school, an old weatherboard with a termite question, treated on a Tuesday. Each step below is the rule that governs it, in the order the EPA and the Pesticides Regulation 2017 put them.

  1. Before the callThe householder checks the licence on the EPA public register, or asks to see it, before agreeing to any work.
  2. The licence itselfA pest management technician licence, issued by the EPA, covers applying pesticides other than fumigants for a fee; from the dates the EPA sets, termite work needs a timber pest management licence.
  3. 5 working days outBecause the property adjoins a school, the person responsible for the school is given a pesticide use notice at least 5 working days before the pesticide is sprayed outdoors, or injected into the ground outdoors, within 20 metres of the school.
  4. If it had been an emergencyFor wasps, bees, venomous spiders, rodents or bird mites the 5 working day notice does not apply, but notification still comes before the job.
  5. After the jobThe technician records the application within 48 hours of using the pesticide, and the record is kept for 3 years.

The record, and what it is for

The last duty is the quietest and the most useful to a householder. The pesticide application must be recorded within 48 hours of using the pesticide, and the record kept for 3 years. If a question comes up later, about a stain on a skirting board or a smell in a wall, that record is the account of what was applied and when.

Failing the notification and record rules has a price. The EPA lists penalty notices on the spot of $800 for a corporation or $400 for an individual, and court fines of up to $44,000 for more serious offences. The licence side is separate, and reaches $60,000 at the top.

Termites in the timber of a Shire house

The subterranean kind, the white ants, cause the most timber damage in NSW, and they live underground or in mounds, building mud tunnels to reach the timber they feed on. Before buying, the state's advice on pre-purchase inspections is plain: a building inspection report may identify visual termite damage but will not say whether timber pests are still active, so a pest inspection is worth having as well, especially where termites are a known problem.

For a house still being built or renovated, the state puts the termite risk management system on the builder, and warns owners to read the contract closely, because some contracts try to shift that liability. The licence arrives with the pesticide, which is why the first question to ask about termite work is which licence the person holds.