Aircraft disinsection is having a moment: destination countries keep adding requirements, and providers keep appearing to meet them. Some are rigorous. Some are improvising. The difference is invisible on a website and very visible on an arrival ramp in Sydney or Rome, so here are the questions that sort one from the other in a single phone call.
1. Which WHO method are you performing, exactly?
The governing standard is the World Health Organization’s Aircraft Disinsection Methods and Procedures, second edition, published in 2023. A provider should name the method they are applying for your specific route: for most US departures that is pre-embarkation, performed on the empty aircraft before boarding at the departure airport. A provider who cannot say which method they perform, or who cites the retired top-of-descent approach for pre-departure treatments, has not read the standard they are selling.
2. What product touches the cabin, and what is its EPA registration number?
In the United States, an insecticide applied inside an aircraft must be a US EPA-registered aircraft product used per its label. The compliant pre-embarkation aerosol is a 2 percent permethrin aircraft product, and a professional provider will give you its registration number without hesitating. If the answer involves a general-purpose insecticide from a supply house, end the call.
3. The residual question
If a US provider offers residual disinsection, ask one question: which US EPA-registered residual aircraft insecticide will you be applying? There is no such product currently registered, which is why residual disinsection is not lawfully available from any US applicator, and why we do not offer it. A certificate of residual disinsection issued in the US describes a treatment that could not have been performed compliantly, and destination authorities that verify treatments, Australia and New Zealand above all, are precisely the ones a residual certificate is aimed at. That is not a paperwork shortcut. It is an arrival problem waiting on a ramp.
4. What happens with Australia and New Zealand paperwork?
Both countries expect operator-level arrangements beyond the spray itself, and they check. A provider who treats an Auckland trip like a Rome trip is a provider who has not been through the process. Ask how they support the operator paperwork and how early they need to start. The right answer involves a conversation about your operation, not a promise that a certificate alone will cover it.
5. What exactly do I hold when you leave?
The deliverables are specific: a certificate of disinsection in the format arrival authorities accept, and the treatment details for the General Declaration, which your crew completes and signs. We hand the crew the exact wording to enter. A provider who cannot describe the certificate and the General Declaration entry from memory will be learning the paperwork on your trip.
6. Who is actually doing the work?
Licensed applicators, insured for aviation work, with ramp access credentials your FBO will accept. Ask for the certificate of insurance up front. This is the least glamorous question and the fastest disqualifier.
Our answers, for the record
Pre-embarkation to the WHO second edition standard, with a US EPA-registered 2 percent permethrin aircraft aerosol, applied by licensed applicators, nationwide, with the certificate and the General Declaration wording handled and the Australia and New Zealand paperwork supported from the first call. No residual claims, because none would be lawful. If you are comparing providers for an upcoming trip, ask everyone the same six questions, including us.