NORTH CAROLINA PESTICIDE APPLICATOR
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
2025/2026 GRADED A+
✔✔The North Carolina Pesticide Board (NCPB) - ✔✔is responsible for carrying out
provision of the NCPL
✔✔NCDA&CS - ✔✔conducts routine inspections of certified applicators, public
agencies, and restricted use pesticide dealers. All pesticides must be registered through
this agency.
✔✔North Carolina Pesticide Storage Regulation - ✔✔
✔✔Pest - ✔✔Any animal which an injure plants, humans, domestic animals, or
substances.
✔✔Commissioner of Agriculture or Pesticide Board - ✔✔must notify Wildlife Resource
Commission when a vertebrate animal is declared a pest
✔✔NCDA&CS Pesticide Disposal Assistance Program - ✔✔collects banned, outdated,
or unwanted pesticides on Pesticide Disposal Collection Days
✔✔Restricted use pesticide record must be kept - ✔✔a minimum of 3 years
✔✔Major types of pests - ✔✔weeds, invertebrates, disease agents or pathogens,
vertebrates
✔✔Preventions - ✔✔pre-plant or pre-emergence herbicides, fungicide treatments, wood
structure treatments
✔✔Suppression - ✔✔does not eliminate all pests, but reduces them to a point below
economic injury level
✔✔Eradication - ✔✔the total elimination from a pest in a given area
✔✔Mode of Action - ✔✔how the pesticide works i.e., affects nervous system, digestive
system, etc.
✔✔Selectivity - ✔✔control only certain species of pests or affect only certain stage of
pest development
✔✔Non-selective - ✔✔affect a range of species. i.e., fumigants harmful to many
species.
, ✔✔Systemic Pesticides - ✔✔absorbed in plants through leaves and roots, though skin
in animals, then are transported within the treated pest
✔✔Contact Pesticides - ✔✔remain on surface of treated pest and are not absorbed and
only affect part of plant or pest that is exposed.
✔✔Residual Pesticides - ✔✔the persistence, or how long a pesticide remains in the
environment, which varies among pesticides
✔✔Integrated Pest Management - ✔✔coordinated use of appropriate pest control
tactics to reduce pests and their damage to an acceptable level
✔✔Pest Control Failure - ✔✔most often caused by incorrect pest identification and lack
of information about pest
✔✔Scouting and trapping - ✔✔pest monitoring technique
✔✔Thresholds - ✔✔pest population levels at which you should take pest control action
to prevent pests from causing unacceptable injury. Economic, health, and aesthetic
considerations.
✔✔Economic Injury Level - ✔✔The pest population level at which the value of lost crop
yield EQUALS the cost of controlling that pest population.
✔✔Economic or Action Threshold - ✔✔the pest population at which control measure are
needed to prevent reaching the economic injury level
✔✔management method or control strategy - ✔✔should offer best combination of
effectiveness and environmental safety
✔✔Natural Control Measures - ✔✔may stop or destroy pests without human
interference. ex. weather, topography, natural enemies
✔✔Applied controls - ✔✔Pest control measures used by humans. These include
biological, cultural, mechanical, and chemical control.
✔✔Biological Control - ✔✔the intentional release of a natural enemy to attack a pest
population
✔✔Biological Controls - ✔✔Predators, parasites, pathogens
✔✔Mechanical Controls - ✔✔screens, machines, fences, traps that prevent pest activity
✔✔Exclusion - ✔✔screen barriers, sealing cracks and small openings
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
2025/2026 GRADED A+
✔✔The North Carolina Pesticide Board (NCPB) - ✔✔is responsible for carrying out
provision of the NCPL
✔✔NCDA&CS - ✔✔conducts routine inspections of certified applicators, public
agencies, and restricted use pesticide dealers. All pesticides must be registered through
this agency.
✔✔North Carolina Pesticide Storage Regulation - ✔✔
✔✔Pest - ✔✔Any animal which an injure plants, humans, domestic animals, or
substances.
✔✔Commissioner of Agriculture or Pesticide Board - ✔✔must notify Wildlife Resource
Commission when a vertebrate animal is declared a pest
✔✔NCDA&CS Pesticide Disposal Assistance Program - ✔✔collects banned, outdated,
or unwanted pesticides on Pesticide Disposal Collection Days
✔✔Restricted use pesticide record must be kept - ✔✔a minimum of 3 years
✔✔Major types of pests - ✔✔weeds, invertebrates, disease agents or pathogens,
vertebrates
✔✔Preventions - ✔✔pre-plant or pre-emergence herbicides, fungicide treatments, wood
structure treatments
✔✔Suppression - ✔✔does not eliminate all pests, but reduces them to a point below
economic injury level
✔✔Eradication - ✔✔the total elimination from a pest in a given area
✔✔Mode of Action - ✔✔how the pesticide works i.e., affects nervous system, digestive
system, etc.
✔✔Selectivity - ✔✔control only certain species of pests or affect only certain stage of
pest development
✔✔Non-selective - ✔✔affect a range of species. i.e., fumigants harmful to many
species.
, ✔✔Systemic Pesticides - ✔✔absorbed in plants through leaves and roots, though skin
in animals, then are transported within the treated pest
✔✔Contact Pesticides - ✔✔remain on surface of treated pest and are not absorbed and
only affect part of plant or pest that is exposed.
✔✔Residual Pesticides - ✔✔the persistence, or how long a pesticide remains in the
environment, which varies among pesticides
✔✔Integrated Pest Management - ✔✔coordinated use of appropriate pest control
tactics to reduce pests and their damage to an acceptable level
✔✔Pest Control Failure - ✔✔most often caused by incorrect pest identification and lack
of information about pest
✔✔Scouting and trapping - ✔✔pest monitoring technique
✔✔Thresholds - ✔✔pest population levels at which you should take pest control action
to prevent pests from causing unacceptable injury. Economic, health, and aesthetic
considerations.
✔✔Economic Injury Level - ✔✔The pest population level at which the value of lost crop
yield EQUALS the cost of controlling that pest population.
✔✔Economic or Action Threshold - ✔✔the pest population at which control measure are
needed to prevent reaching the economic injury level
✔✔management method or control strategy - ✔✔should offer best combination of
effectiveness and environmental safety
✔✔Natural Control Measures - ✔✔may stop or destroy pests without human
interference. ex. weather, topography, natural enemies
✔✔Applied controls - ✔✔Pest control measures used by humans. These include
biological, cultural, mechanical, and chemical control.
✔✔Biological Control - ✔✔the intentional release of a natural enemy to attack a pest
population
✔✔Biological Controls - ✔✔Predators, parasites, pathogens
✔✔Mechanical Controls - ✔✔screens, machines, fences, traps that prevent pest activity
✔✔Exclusion - ✔✔screen barriers, sealing cracks and small openings
