Hailey, Mosquito Field Technician

How did you get involved with MMCD?

I also work at a climbing gym, and one of the other people who was in and out of there a lot told me ‘You should totally work for MMCD! It’s such a great place and you would really like it, you get to work outside all the time!’.

And so I didn’t apply, until a couple years later when I was looking for another seasonal position and this just came up on Indeed or LinkedIn or something, and I applied and got an interview, and now this is my second season working here!

What do you do on a daily basis?

For the field staff, we do a few different things. We do some catch basin work, so driving around to storm drains and seeing if they have any mosquito larvae, and we also do ground work which is testing other sites, so like wetlands and small ponds and stuff like that.

And then the other thing we do is air testing, which is testing bigger sites that the helicopters treat, to see if those sites meet threshold too. Threshold means we got at least two larvae per dip, which we then suck up and send to the lab to see if they are one of the types that we treat for.

Why do you feel your work is important?

I mean, who likes mosquitos? We’re helping the public and getting rid of an annoyance, especially I think the catch basins breed a lot of mosquitos in more populated areas, so it’s good that we’re going around and treating those specifically.

And then there’s also the disease aspect of it – we’re reducing vectors for some really nasty diseases, and that’s pretty important. I like to tell people that I fist-fight mosquitos for my job!

What is the most interesting part of your job?

Working out in the field all the time, and doing the catch basins, you see a lot of interesting things, like just the other day I found this horse skull just sitting by one of my sites! Or all the other cool bugs and animals - I saw a massive gopher earlier today, things like that keep the work interesting, and also so it’s not the same sort of thing every day.

Why do you enjoy your position?

It’s nice to work outside, especially on days like today you know, 70 degrees and overcast are good conditions to be driving around in. I don’t like it so much when it’s like 90 degrees out and you’ve got a hundred mosquitos and blackflies just swarming your head, but you know we have protective gear and face nets that we can wear, so it’s not too bad.

I just like the variety of it, and driving around in Minneapolis is really nice – getting to see all the pretty houses and getting to know the city better is fun.

What have been some fun/memorable moments?

You find a lot of interesting stuff out in the field, there was one time that I got this intuition to flip over a log at one of my sites, and underneath it there was a blue-spotted salamander just sitting there! And I came back to the shop at the end of the day and told one of my coworkers, and he asked what site it was, and told me the last time he was there he tripped over a log and got all stung up by a hornet’s nest! But the one time I decide to flip over a log there on purpose I found a blue-spotted salamander?? What are the odds of that!

How is the work culture at MMCD?

It’s good vibes! You know, I wouldn’t have come back for two seasons if it wasn’t a good work culture, it’s really great to work with people that you like, and to have good bosses and good hours, it makes or breaks a job like this to be honest.