There are currently about 10 applicators specifically licensed in North Carolina for drones
RALEIGH, N.C. — As drones continue to become more commonplace, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has prepared to be sure anyone who uses drones for pesticide applications is properly licensed. The Structural Pest Control and Pesticides Division now has a document with step-by-step information on how applicators can become properly licensed to use drones.
The document comes in large part thanks to Dwight Seal in the Pesticides Section of the division.
“I knew this was coming,” Seal said about the increase in interest in the topic in recent year. “You know, when you work in this business long enough you know where the questions are going to come from, and I said, well we need it in writing. So people will have it so that we can all sing off the same sheet, so to speak, and everyone knows these are the rules.”
Seal is the division’s Western District Pesticide Manager, but his interest and involvement in how drones and pesticides intersect has spread across the state and beyond. He’s served as the chair of the Emerging Technology Working Group within the national American Association of Pesticide Control Officials (AAPCO). Recently he spoke at a national spray drone user’s conference in Alabama. His talk was titled “A Regulator’s Perspective: UAVs used for Pesticide Applications.”
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