Vanessa has a Bachelor of Science in Molecular, Cell and Development Biology from the University of Santa Cruz. After graduating from college, Vanessa worked in the Environmental Health Field for Monterey County and the City of San Jose. During this time, she became certified through the California Department of Public Health as a Registered Environmental Health Specialist.

Vanessa's answers to a few questions about working with the District:

What is your favorite part of your job?

My favorite part is educating residents about mosquitoes, mosquito larvae, and standing water. I love when people are interested and nodding along, that they’ve learned something and will remember!

What interest/background brought you to this job?

I’ve always been interested in public health and teaching residents how to protect themselves and their community

Prior to this job, I was a health inspector. Part of my role was taking water samples from wells for testing for contaminants – to make sure that the water was safe for the community to drink.  Another part of my role was inspecting solid waste facilities (landfills) to ensure that they were following regulations that kept the surrounding communities safe from potential contaminants.

Now in my role in mosquito control, I like the hands-on part of my work and the educational aspect of helping people learn how to protect themselves and their communities from mosquito-borne diseases.  I’ve always wanted to educate residents of the importance of ‘doing their part’ to keep the whole community safe – mosquito control is a lot of that!  Each of our own little actions can have a big impact on the health of our community.

What’s your favorite mosquito fact?

Before I started this job, I didn’t know that there are many different species of mosquitoes. They each have different behaviors and types of water where they prefer to lay their eggs. We use those differences to help us look for the specific water sources where that kind of mosquito would be likely to be found (some mosquitoes lay eggs in clean-ish rain water, while others lay eggs in stinky water like leaking plumbing). Another behavioral difference is that some mosquitoes are day-biting and others are night-biting, so it’s important for us to know if people are being bitten indoors vs outdoors. We use these clues more than people realize!  For example, the ‘house mosquito’ (Culex pipiens) is very good at getting into homes and biting, while western treehole mosquitoes (Aedes sierrensis) would be more top of my mind if someone said they were being bitten outdoors in a certain part of the county during a certain time of year.

Where is the most surprising place you’ve found larvae?

In the bed of a truck.  This was actually two different times!  Each time, the truck was being stored parked on a slope, and the truck bed was not draining the water. There were larvae in the water after the rainy season.  This can also happen with boats that are being stored in driveways, or in the footwells of a jet ski.  If storing a boat or other vehicle, be sure to cover it with a waterproof tarp!

Where outdoors would you spend a day off in San Mateo County?

One of my favorite spots is Pescadero State Beach; you can feel a nice ocean spray at the beach.

What residents have to say about Vanessa