1. (1) An application for examination and a fee of $300 for each category of pest control in which the applicant desires to be examined must be paid by each applicant at the time of application submission. Checks or money orders shall be made payable to the Department. Applications received without the required fees will be considered incomplete and will not be processed. Checks returned by the bank will invalidate the application for non-payment of fees.
2. (2) The fee for special identification card examination shall be $200 for each category in which the applicant desires to be examined.
3. (3) Four (4) hours will be allotted for completing examinations in each category.
4. (4) Three (3) hours will be allotted for completing special identification card examinations.

5. (5) All examinations shall consist of theoretical questions, and practical questions. All applicants for examination for certification or special identification card will be examined on or required to demonstrate satisfactory knowledge of the following:

   1. (a) Pest Control Act, Chapter 482, F.S.
   2. (b) Rules of the Department, Chapter 5E-14, F.A.C., Pest Control Regulations, Parts No. 1 through 6.
   3. (c) Precautions necessary and required by law, rules and good industry practice for the safeguard of life, health and property in the conduct of pest control.
   4. (d) Pests, their habits, recognition of damage caused, and identification by accepted common names.
   5. (e) Building construction terminology.
   6. (f) Accepted good industry methods and practices founded upon recognized publications of the industry.

6. (6) In order to receive a passing grade on any examination, the following must be attained:

   A total point score, equal to or exceeding seventy-five (75) percent of the total number of examination questions.

7. (7) Examinations shall be hand or machine scored and graded by or under the direction of the Department, and examinees notified that they either passed or failed.

8. (8) Examination procedures and violations. In-person and remote-proctored examination rules and procedures shall be published and presented to each examinee prior to examination. If the Department determines that an examinee has violated examination rules and procedures, the following shall occur:

   1. (a) The exam results will be invalidated.
   2. (b) Forfeiture of all fees associated with the examination.
   3. (c) An examinee who has had three (3) remote-proctored exams invalidated due to violation of examination rules and procedures will not be permitted to utilize the remote testing platform and must test in-person.

9. (9) Cheating. Cheating on an examination includes using any method intended to defeat the purpose of testing the personal knowledge and competence of the applicant to apply pesticides but is not limited to using electronic devices to communicate with other individuals or devices, using study materials or other unapproved resources during the examination including accessing websites not approved for use during the examination, communicating with other testers in the test session by any means, using copied or stolen examination questions before or during the examination, photocopying, photographing, or otherwise duplicating the test questions in whole or in part, and the use of an electronic device to search for answers to exam questions. If the Department determines that an examinee has cheated, the following shall occur:

   1. (a) The exam results will be invalidated.
   2. (b) Forfeiture of all fees associated with the examination.
   3. (c) Upon the first instance, the examinee will not be permitted to take any pesticide examination offered by the Department for one (1) year from the date of said occurrence. Any subsequent determination that an examinee has cheated shall result in the imposition of a three (3) year ban from taking any pesticide examination offered by the Department.

Rulemaking Authority 482.051 FS. Law Implemented 482.141(2), 482.151(4) FS. History–New 1-1-77, Formerly 10D-55.123, Amended 8-11-93, 7-5-95, 5-28-98, 4-29-02, 4-17-03, 8-4-08, 4-29-25.