How To Become A Pest Control Applicator: What It Is and Career Path

What is a pest control applicator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a pest control applicator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.59 an hour? That's $42,824 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 7% and produce 6,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePest Control ApplicatorUS Average

Salary

3.3

Avg. Salary $42,824

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.8

Growth rate 7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.94%

Asian 2.26%

Black or African American 9.37%

Hispanic or Latino 21.50%

Unknown 5.15%

White 60.78%

Gender

female 8.70%

male 91.30%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

6.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.3

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a pest control applicator

Explore pest control applicator education requirements

Most common pest control applicator degrees

Bachelor's

42.9 %

Associate

20.4 %

Master's

18.4 %

Start to develop specific pest control applicator skills

Skills	Percentages
Pest Control	54.99%
Customer Service	9.93%
Web Application	7.93%
Windows	5.32%
QA	3.93%

Complete relevant pest control applicator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New pest control applicators learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a pest control applicator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real pest control applicator resumes.

Research pest control applicator duties and responsibilities

Apply exterior chemicals to manage and treat for insect and rodent infestations.
Apply pesticides in residential and commercial dwellings according to manufacturing and EPA regulations.
Enter data into handheld Juno Trimble GPS unit.

Prepare your pest control applicator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your pest control applicator resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a pest control applicator resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable pest control applicator resume templates

Build a professional pest control applicator resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your pest control applicator resume.