Recordkeeping basics
The Federal 2-Year Floor for Pesticide Records (and Why It's Rarely the Number That Applies to You)
What 40 CFR Part 171.107's 2-year federal retention requirement actually covers, why nearly every state requires longer, and why your state's rule — not the federal floor — is almost always the one that governs your business.
What federal law actually sets
40 CFR Part 171.107 requires certified applicators to keep records of restricted-use pesticide applications for 2 years. That's a federal floor specifically scoped to restricted-use pesticide (RUP) applications by certified applicators — it isn't a general recordkeeping law covering every pesticide application a pest control business makes.
Why it's a floor, not the number to plan around
Every state's own recordkeeping rule meets or exceeds this 2-year federal floor, and most go well past it — up to 7 years in Washington, with several states requiring longer retention specifically for termiticide or wood-destroying-organism records. Most states also extend some version of the recordkeeping requirement to general-use pesticide applications, which the federal §171.107 rule doesn't touch at all. Treating 2 years as "the rule" is the most common way an operator ends up under-retaining records relative to what their own state actually requires.
The practical rule of thumb
Follow the strictest rule that actually applies to you, which in nearly every case is your state's rule, not the federal floor. Check your state's specific requirement rather than defaulting to 2 years — a business that only meets the federal RUP floor is very likely out of compliance with its own state's broader, and usually longer, retention rule.
Last reviewed . Source: 40 CFR Part 171 (Certification of Pesticide Applicators) — read the primary source.
Questions, answered
- No — 40 CFR Part 171.107 is scoped specifically to restricted-use pesticide records kept by certified applicators. General-use pesticide recordkeeping requirements, where they exist, come entirely from state law, which is also why coverage varies — a small number of states, like Kansas, have no dedicated recordkeeping rule for commercial applicators at all.
- The longer one still applies for restricted-use pesticide records, since state law can add stricter requirements on top of the federal floor but can't reduce below it.
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.