By Philip Walzer
Sandra Fisher-Grainger ’99 wants to remind you of an unpleasant fact: Mosquitoes are the world’s deadliest animals, killing at least 700,000 people a year.
“I don’t think people understand the risk,” she said. In 2023, the United States reported its first cases of malaria in 20 years. The annoying flies can also spread dengue, West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis.
Fisher-Grainger tries to keep mosquitoes far from humans. She recently served as president of the Florida Mosquito Control Association and works as the director of mosquito control in Hernando County.
She described herself as “a huge shark nerd in high school.” But while studying biology at 鶹ý, she became fascinated with infectious diseases, even though a parasitology class taught by Eminent Scholar Daniel Sonenshine, Ph.D., was “really tough.”
She first got involved with mosquitoes while interning with Norfolk’s Vector Control Program. After a fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she returned to Norfolk and moved to a similar position in Hampton. Meanwhile, she received her master’s degree in public health from Eastern Virginia Medical School in 2003.
Fisher-Grainger’s wife, Sheila Grainger, persuaded her to move to Florida, where she became director of mosquito control for Miami-Dade County in 2006. Drawing on her EVMS training, she improved data collection through GIS mapping and better recording of treatments and inspections.
In 2014, she became director of mosquito control in Hernando County, located on the west central coast of Florida. With the small size of the office, Fisher- Grainger said, “I can be a team leader and a real problem solver, empowering my employees to be their best with passion and humility. They know their work and are free to make decisions independently. I’ve had pretty much the same employees the entire time.”
Technology, from drones to tablets, has transformed her work. “In the time I have been in this field, we went from recording data on paper and paper maps to having GIS-based databases that help us anticipate potential problems,” Fisher-Grainger said.
One of the biggest problems: open containers of water, which are fertile breeding grounds. Her easy fixes include overturning kayaks, draining outdoor pet bowls and unclogging house gutters.
To lessen mosquitoes’ interest, Fisher-Grainger suggests wearing loose, long, light-colored clothing — and insect repellent. To those who say, “I don’t want to put that on my skin,” she has a response: “You don’t want West Nile virus, either.”