The free, searchable pesticide database operated by Washington State University!

Frequently Asked Questions

For printable tip sheets, scroll to bottom of page.

PICOL FAQs

What's new:

  • Free user accounts (save your preferences for several key search terms, e.g. state, year, intended user, etc.).
  • You can now use either simple text-entry search fields (recommended) or exact match searches.
  • Modify searches easily (add/remove/change terms).
  • Sort and filter search results quickly (column header sorts and filters).

Selecting a search type:

  • Express search, if you need one-click access to these frequently used sets of data. 
  • Quick search, if you need a quick peek at a specific label or set of labels. 
  • Advanced search, if you need more options than are available in Express or Quick searches. Advanced searches also allow you to construct complex searches with many parameters.

Displaying search results, or, why can't I see that one thing...

Searches will display a selected set of information for your results. Depending on which search you use, what you see may differ (for instance, you won’t see information on supplemental labels if you are using the Express SLN search). 

  • You can change what shows up and what does not. 
  • Move your mouse to the column header and right-click to see a list of available display options.
  • Uncheck columns you want to hide and check the ones you want to see.

You can Sort results by clicking in the column headers.

You can Filter results by typing one or more text characters in the header boxes.

You can see Details for a specific product by clicking on the details link in the Action column. Can’t find it? Make sure you didn’t uncheck that column.

You can view/download the Label PDF from these two places:

  • In the Results Display: Click the OR or WA link in the Labels column
  • On the Details page: Click the appropriate Download link for your state at the top of the page.

Accounts (and why you need one):

  • Accounts are free.
  • We don’t share or sell your email. Really.
  • We might occasionally contact you if there is a very, very good reason (that is related to PICOL or your use of the site). But we haven’t figured out what may be important enough to make us do that yet.
  • So, you are in OR, and you are really, really tired of selecting the state. Every. Single. Time. Guess what? We fixed that! (But you have to have an account so you can select the default state.)
  • Save your preferences for several key settings (state, year, and a few selected search terms).
  • Save your custom searches to repeat later.

API availability:

  • Not everyone wants to let their fingers do the walking every time they use PICOL. That’s okay…now there’s an API for that.
  • You need to be a registered user on the site to get an API key.  
  • You will have to agree to the PICOL Terms of Service before you get to play. Read them. They’re short. We promise. You can find them here: https://picol.cahnrs.wsu.edu/Account/RequestApiKey

PICOL tip sheets (PDF files)*

*PDF files may require additional software to view or print. Wikipedia offers a list of some options.


The database is currently updating, check back in 15 minutes for the latest data.