2023 Texas Statutes › Agriculture Code › Title 5 - Production, Processing, and Sale of Horticultural Products › Subtitle B - Horticultural Diseases and Pests › Chapter 76 - Pesticide and Herbicide Regulation › Subchapter A. General Provisions › Section 76.001. Definitions

Sec. 76.001.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:
(1)  "Active ingredient" means:
(A)  in the case of a pesticide other than a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant, an ingredient that prevents, destroys, repels, or mitigates a pest;
(B)  in the case of a plant regulator, an ingredient that through physiological action accelerates or retards the rate of growth or rate of maturation or otherwise alters the behavior of an ornamental or crop plant or the product of an ornamental or crop plant;
(C)  in the case of a defoliant, an ingredient that causes leaves or foliage to drop from a plant;  or
(D)  in the case of a desiccant, an ingredient that artificially accelerates the drying of plant tissue.
(2)  "Animal" means a vertebrate or invertebrate species, including man, other mammals, birds, fish, and shellfish.
(3)  "Antidote" means a practical treatment used in preventing or lessening ill effects from poisoning, including first aid.
(4)  "Application of a herbicide" means the spreading of a herbicide on real property having a continuous boundary line.
(5)  "Defoliant" means a substance or mixture of substances intended to cause the leaves or foliage to drop from a plant, with or without causing abscission.
(6)  "Department" means the Department of Agriculture.
(7)  "Desiccant" means a substance or mixture of substances intended to artificially accelerate the drying of plant tissue.
(8)  "Device" means an instrument or contrivance, other than a firearm, that is used to trap, destroy, repel, or mitigate a pest or other form of plant or animal life, other than man or a bacteria, virus, or other microorganism on or in living man or other living animals.  The term does not include equipment sold separately from a pesticide.
(9)  "Distribute" means offer for sale, hold for sale, sell, barter, or supply.
(10)  "Environment" includes water, air, land, plants, man, and other animals living in or on water, air, or land, and the interrelationships that exist among them.
(11)  "Equipment" means any type of ground, water, or aerial equipment or contrivance employing motorized, mechanical, or pressurized power and used to apply a pesticide to land or to anything that may be inhabiting or growing or stored on or in the land.  The term does not include a pressurized hand-sized household apparatus used to apply a pesticide or any equipment or contrivance for which the person applying the pesticide is the source of power or energy used in making the pesticide application.
(12)  "FIFRA" means the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (7 U.S.C. Section 136 et seq.).
(13)  "Fungus" means a non-chlorophyll-bearing thallophyte, including rust, smut, mildew, mold, yeast, or bacteria, but not including a non-chlorophyll-bearing thallophyte on or in living man or other living animals or on or in a processed food, beverage, or pharmaceutical.
(14)  "Inert ingredient" means an ingredient that is not an active ingredient.
(15)  "Insect" means any of the numerous small invertebrate animals generally having a segmented body and for the most part belonging to the class Insecta, comprising six-legged, usually winged forms such as beetles, bugs, bees, and flies.  The term includes allied classes of arthropods, the members of which are wingless and usually have more than six legs, such as spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and wood lice.
(16)  "Label" means the written, printed, or graphic matter on or attached to a pesticide or device or any of its containers or wrappers.
(17)  "Labeling" means a label or any other written, printed, or graphic matter prepared by a registrant:
(A)  accompanying the pesticide or device at any time;  or
(B)  to which reference is made on a label or in literature accompanying or referring to a pesticide or device, except accurate, nonmisleading references made to a current official publication of a federal or state institution or agency authorized by law to conduct research in the field of pesticides.
(18)  "Land" means any land or water area, including airspace, and any plant, animal, structure, building, contrivance, or machinery, whether fixed or mobile, appurtenant to or situated on a land or water area or airspace, including any used for transportation.
(19)  "License use category" means a classification of pesticide use based on the subject, method, or place of pesticide application.
(20)  "Nematode" means an invertebrate animal of the phylum Nemathelminthes and class Nematoda (an unsegmented roundworm with an elongated, fusiform, or sac-like body covered with cuticle) inhabiting soil, water, plants, or plant parts.
(21)  "Pesticide" means a substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any pest, or any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant.
(22)  "Plant regulator" means a substance or mixture of substances intended through physiological action to accelerate or retard the rate of growth or rate of maturation, or otherwise to alter the behavior of an ornamental or crop plant or the product of an ornamental or crop plant, but does not include a substance to the extent that it is intended as a plant nutrient, trace element, nutritional chemical, plant inoculant, or soil amendment.
(23)  "Registrant" means a person who has registered a pesticide under this chapter.
(24)  "Regulatory agency" means a state agency with responsibility for certifying applicators under Subchapter E of this chapter.
(25)  "Restricted-use pesticide" means a pesticide classified as a restricted-use pesticide by the Environmental Protection Agency.
(26)  "Thallophyte" means a non-chlorophyll-bearing plant of a lower order than mosses and liverworts.
(27)  "Weed" means any plant that grows where not wanted.
(28)  "Worker protection standard" means the federal worker protection standard as found in the Code of Federal Regulations, 40 C.F.R. Parts 156 and 170.
Acts 1981, 67th Leg., p. 1188, ch. 388, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1981.  Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1369, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.