October marks the beginning of the 2026-2027 pesticide training and testing season. General Standards and Private exams taken on or after October 1, 2026, will count toward licensure through the end of 2029 once an Illinois pesticide license is issued.* Here’s what Illinois Pesticide Operators and Applicators need to know about this year’s training and testing season.
Website Changes
October 2026 will mark the opening of the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the University of Illinois Pesticide Safety Education Program’s online training and testing. During the month of September, the online training and testing system was closed for seasonal maintenance.
Our maintenance period is the time that we typically make changes to courses, exams, and webpages. This year, we had the special opportunity to separate our course and testing catalog from extension’s Learn@Illinois Extension website to its very own training and testing platform, called the PSEP On-Demand Center. This will give users the same look and feel as the previous site while providing simplified course and testing options, hopefully making the user experience more straightforward. Account information from the previous Learn@Illinois Extension site has been moved over for easy initial login for those who have previously taken a course or exam on the previous site.
In-Person Training and Testing Sessions
The schedule for in-person training and testing will be released at the beginning of November. In-person training offerings include: General Standards, Private, Rights-of-Way, Field crops, Turfgrass, Ornamentals, and Mosquito. All certification exams are available at any in-person training and testing session, even if the category was not covered in that day's training.
In-Person Test-Only Sessions
In-person testing is available all year through the Illinois Department of Agriculture. In-person tests can be scheduled online or by calling IDOA’s Springfield office at (217) 785-2427 or the DeKalb office at (815) 787-5476.
Other Study Materials
Pesticide Safety Manuals and workbooks for home study are available year-round on our website. New releases consist of the Pest Management for Commercial Landscapes and Turfgrass Handbook, Pest Management for the Home Landscapes Handbook, Grain Facility Pest Control Manual, Mosquito Pest Control Manual (coming Oct/Nov), Field Crops Pest Control Manual (coming soon), and Rights-of-Way Workbook (Oct/Nov). Handbooks are meant to give control recommendations, manuals hold information needed to prepare for exams, and workbooks act as a tool to practice for the exam, which can be used with or independent of trainings.
* Categories added in years following licensure will last the length of the original license.
Photo Credit: Adobe Stock by Janews094
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Schepis provides subject matter expertise and training in pesticide safety with an emphasis on entomology.