Seneca Presbyterian Church

2025-2026 Regular Session Introduced by Thomas Alexander

The act lets the Pesticide Board create flexible opt-out methods for wide-area spraying, including census and hand-delivered notices, to exclude properties.

Introduced and adopted

Summary — S.666 (An Act relative to pesticide applications) — SIGNED CHAP.251

Note on metadata: The bill text and legislative history provided show S.666 as an Act relative to pesticide applications (filed by Sen. Bruce E. Tarr in the Massachusetts Legislature) and was signed into law as Chapter 251 on 2025-08-07. Some supplied header items (title about a hotel/motel tax and some sponsor names) conflict with the bill text; this summary follows the enacted text.

Purpose

To authorize the Massachusetts Pesticide Board, in consultation with the State Reclamation and Mosquito Control Board, to adopt regulations providing alternative, more flexible ways for private property owners to designate their property for exclusion from wide-area pesticide applications — including mosquito-control spraying — without requiring submission of a certified letter to the municipal clerk.

Key provisions

Directs the Massachusetts Pesticide Board (consulting the State Reclamation and Mosquito Control Board) to adopt regulations providing alternative means to opt out of wide-area and mosquito-control pesticide applications approved under 333 CMR 13.03.

Requires that alternatives include, but are not limited to:

Allowing municipalities to add an “opt out” provision on annual city/town census forms enabling residents to elect exclusion of their property from such pesticide applications.
Allowing residents to submit a hand-delivered letter to the municipal clerk containing: the requester’s name, address and telephone number (if any), the address of the property to be excluded, and a description of the types of pesticide application programs for which exclusion is requested.

Regulations must be implemented at least 90 days before the start of the 2026 pesticide spraying season.

The language is regulatory in nature — it changes how exclusions are documented and processed rather than altering pesticide approval standards or funding.

Who is affected

Private property owners/residents who wish to opt out of municipal or state-authorized wide-area pesticide or mosquito-control spraying.

Municipal clerks and municipal governments, which may be required to include opt-out options on census forms and process hand-delivered opt-out requests.

The Massachusetts Pesticide Board and the State Reclamation and Mosquito Control Board (responsible for promulgating and implementing the regulations).

Mosquito control programs and pesticide applicators, which may have increased numbers of exclusions to track and respect.

Procedural timeline / status

Filed: January 9, 2025; introduced in Senate and referred to relevant committees.

Passed Senate: May 27, 2025. Passed House: June 13, 2025.

Delivered to Governor: August 4, 2025.

Signed into law: August 7, 2025 (Chapter 251).

Regulatory change required to be in place ≥90 days before the 2026 spraying season.

Potential impacts and considerations

Easier/alternative opt-out mechanisms could increase the number of properties excluded from spraying, affecting coverage of mosquito-control programs and disease-vector management strategies.

Municipalities will need to update census forms and clerk procedures; there may be administrative burdens for recordkeeping and public outreach.

Because the statute delegates specifics to regulation, exact implementation details (timing, form formats, notice to residents, verification processes) will be determined by the Pesticide Board in consultation with the State Reclamation and Mosquito Control Board.