The Nebraska Pesticide Act defines a pesticide as a substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate any pest. This includes insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, growth regulators, repellents, disinfectants, sanitizers and similar products.
Through it's administration of the Pesticide Act, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) registers the pesticides available for distribution and use in the state. An annual registration fee of $200 (non-specialty pesticides) or $135 (specialty pesticides) is collected to register each labeled pesticide. The NDA also licenses pesticide dealers who distribute pesticides in Nebraska at wholesale or retail. A dealer's license, required of those distributing or selling pesticides in Nebraska, costs $25 per calendar year.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Section 25(b), exempts certain minimum risk pesticides from federal registration. The exemption is limited to a list of 31 active ingredients and numerous approved inert ingredients (list 4A). The exemption also is conditional upon appropriate label language. The exemption conditions, as well as the approved active ingredient lists, can be found in the federal Pesticide Registration (PR) Notice 2000-6. The approved inert list has been trimmed since PR 2000-6 to remove potential allergens. Note: even if a pesticide is exempt from FIFRA requirements, the product may not be exempt from state registration or other regulatory requirements. Each state has it's own regulations concerning pesticide registration and regulation.
Products which satisfy the requirements of the FIFRA 25(b) federal exemption are typically also considered exempt from Nebraska's registration requirements. However, the NDA does require that 25(b) pesticide labels be submitted to our department for review and approval before the product is distributed and sold in our state. Distribution of these products may require a dealer's license. Approval of minimum risk pesticide labels is based upon the product composition and labeling requirements defined in the federal PR Notice 2000-6. To submit a product label for review, mail to:
Copies of the pesticide labels approved and registered in Nebraska are maintained in NDA files.
PR Notice 2000-6 can be viewed here.
Files in PDF format can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat
Reader. 