Pest Control Across the Mississippi and Tennessee Line

Why the line matters for the paperwork

Each state licenses pest control under its own rules, so a licence from one state does not carry over to the other.

Southaven sits on the Mississippi side of the state line, with Interstate 55 running between it and Memphis. A caller on either side of the line may be served by the same call line, and the people and pests move freely across it. The paperwork does not move with them, and each visit is recorded under the licence for the state where it was done.

The practical result is that the first question on any call is the ZIP. It decides the state, the state decides the licence, and the licence decides which technician can attend.

The towns on each side

The Mississippi towns in the call area include Southaven, Horn Lake, Olive Branch, Hernando, Walls, Nesbit, Lake Cormorant, Byhalia and Coldwater. The Tennessee towns and ZIP groups include Whitehaven, Memphis North, Memphis South, Memphis Central, Memphis East, Memphis Southeast, Germantown, Cordova, Bartlett, Collierville and Millington.

Checking the licence on each side

On the Mississippi side, the licence is checked with the Department of Agriculture and Commerce. On the Tennessee side, it is checked with the Tennessee office that issues the credential.

The check takes a few minutes and is worth doing before the first treatment. A caller who asks the question early is protected by the answer, and a technician who expects the question is one who has the paperwork ready.

• Ask the technician which state's licence applies, and for the licence details
• Check a Mississippi licence with the Department, through its Bureau of Plant Industry
• Check a Tennessee licence with the Tennessee office responsible for pesticide applicators
• Note the licence on the written report, with the state and the technician's credential
• Keep the records for each state separately if the property or the business has sites on both sides

A property or business on both sides

A property or business with buildings in Mississippi and Tennessee needs two licence records, but it can have one contract and one log.

The contract should name each site and the state it stands in, and the log should have a section for each. A technician who visits both sides should hold the licence for each, and the report for each site should name it. One invoice and one schedule can cover both, as long as the records are kept apart.

A household with a rental on the Tennessee side and a home in Southaven should give each address at the first call, so the two are booked separately under the right licence.

Pests do not stop at the line

A pest can move across the line in a car, a delivery or a load of timber, and the visit is still licensed where the building is.

MSU Extension's 2006 newsletter says termite spread is mainly through infested wood products, so a timber brought across the line is a route worth checking on whichever side it ends up. The census count of Southaven, 54,648 at the 2020 census, is the population of the Mississippi city, and the Memphis suburbs on the other side add a large part of the metro's traffic.

The rule is simple. The pest is treated where it is found, the licence is the one for that state, and the report records both.

A business with stock on both sides of the line

A business that holds stock in a Mississippi building and a Tennessee building has to think about which licence covers each part of its pest work.

A stockroom in DeSoto County and a shop in Shelby County are two sites, and each is treated under the licence for its state. The stock itself is not the issue; the building is. A technician who inspects the Mississippi stockroom uses the Mississippi licence and records it, and the same technician, or a colleague, inspects the Tennessee shop under the Tennessee licence.

A business should keep a single schedule for both sites, with the licence for each site named in the schedule. That way, a visit to the Tennessee shop is not booked on a Mississippi licence, and a manager who reads the record can see which licence covered each visit.

A call that starts on one side and ends on the other

A pest may be found on one side of the line and traced to a source on the other, and the call still has to be handled under two licences.

A caller in Horn Lake may see ants that come across a shared fence from a yard in Shelby County. The technician treats the caller's side under the Mississippi licence and records the trail. The source on the other side is noted in the report, and the caller is told that the work there is for the owner of that yard, under the Tennessee licence that would apply to it.

The same reasoning works in reverse. A caller in Germantown who finds a rodent route from a neighboring property in DeSoto County should note where the animal came from, and the report should say which licence covers each building. The point is to record the source accurately, not to treat a building that is not the caller's.

Records a buyer or a lender will ask for

A property sold or refinanced on one side of the line may need a pest record, and the record must name the licence for that state.

A buyer or a lender may ask for a pest inspection report, and the report should name the state and the licence that covers the building. A report for a Tennessee house that names only a Mississippi licence will be questioned, and it may not be accepted. The household should check the licence on any report before it is given to a buyer.

The inspection report, the photographs and the treatment record should be kept together, and a copy of the licence details should be filed with them. A record that is complete and correctly licensed is easier to hand over at the time of a sale.

Asking the right question at the start

The most useful question on any call across the line is the simplest: which state's licence applies to this address.

A caller who asks that question at the start saves time for everyone. The call line uses the answer to choose the technician, the technician uses it to choose the licence, and the report repeats it so the caller has the record. A caller who does not know the answer can give the ZIP, which settles it.

A caller should also ask whether the technician has worked in that county before. It is a reasonable question, and it helps the caller understand whether the technician knows the local conditions, including MSU Extension's findings for DeSoto County and the swarm window.

Checking the paperwork before a visit crosses the line

A visit that will cross the line, such as a technician who works both sides of a single job, needs its paperwork checked before the vehicle leaves the yard.

Where a technician is asked to attend a Mississippi building and then a Tennessee building in one day, the call line should confirm the licence for each before the route is set. The technician should carry the licence details for both states, and the report for each building should name the licence that covers it. A visit that is booked without this check can produce a record that is wrong for one of the two sites.

The check is a short one, and it protects the household. A caller who sees the licence named on the report can see at once that the work was recorded under the right state's rules.

Commercial sites in Tennessee with a Mississippi head office

A company with a head office in Mississippi and a site in Shelby County keeps the Tennessee site on the Tennessee licence, whatever the head office is licensed for.

The head office location does not decide the licence for a site. A business that manages a Tennessee site from DeSoto County should keep the site's licence record in the Tennessee file, with the technician who attends it named. The head office may hold the Mississippi licence for its own work, and that licence does not extend to the Tennessee site.

A manager should ask for a site-by-site summary each quarter, showing which licence covered each visit at each address. The summary is the simplest way to show, later, that every site was covered by the right state's rules.

A ZIP code list for the Tennessee side

The Tennessee ZIP codes in the call area are 38016, 38017, 38027, 38053, 38103 to 38109, 38111, 38113 to 38119, 38120, 38122, 38125, 38126, 38127, 38128, 38133 to 38135, 38138 and 38139, and a caller in any of them is on the Tennessee side.

The list is the reference the call line uses to choose the state, and it is also useful to a caller who wants to check the side of the line before calling. A caller who is unsure of the ZIP should give the street address, and the call line will confirm the state before a technician is booked.