Recordkeeping basics
How to Read an EPA Pesticide Registration Number
What the numbers in an EPA registration number actually mean, why every application record needs one, and how to tell a registration number from an establishment number.
What the number is for
Every pesticide product legally sold in the U.S. has to be registered with the EPA under FIFRA before it can be distributed or sold. The EPA registration number is how that specific product is identified — it's printed on the product label, and it's the number that goes on every application record, service invoice, and compliance filing that references the product.
Reading the format
A standard EPA registration number has two parts separated by a hyphen: a company number, then a product number — for example, 066551-00001. The company number identifies who holds the registration; the product number identifies which specific product it is, in the order that company registered it with the EPA.
Distributor products carry a three-part number instead (company-product-distributor), because the product is being sold under a different company's label than the one that actually registered it. If you see three groups of digits instead of two, that's why.
Don't confuse it with the establishment number
Pesticide labels also carry an EPA establishment number, which identifies the facility where the product was manufactured or packaged — a different thing entirely, and not what belongs in your application record. The registration number is the one to capture; it's usually printed right next to "EPA Reg. No." on the label.
Last reviewed . Source: EPA, Pesticide Registration Manual, Chapter 14 — read the primary source.
Questions, answered
- Yes — the registration number identifies the formulation, not the container size. A quart and a gallon of the same product carry the same registration number.
- Look the product up by name in the EPA's Pesticide Product Label System (PPLS) rather than guessing at a number from memory — an incorrect registration number on a record is itself a recordkeeping problem.
PestShift builds this into every job
A job can't be marked complete without the product, EPA registration number, target pest, rate, and application site on file — so the record exists as part of the work, not as paperwork someone has to remember to do later.