Think you have a crummy job? Consider the 47 employees of Harris County Public Health’s Mosquito and Vector Control Division. After each major Houston-area weather event, these hardy public health workers fan out to 21 spots around Harris County. They work in teams of two. One staffer stands in place, bare-limbed, without bug spray, while the other counts how many mosquitoes land on them in a minute. If the number is greater than thirty, the county dispatches a pesticide truck. “That is how far our staff is willing to go to protect the county from the risk of mosquito-borne viruses,” said Max Vigilant, the division’s appropriately named director. “They definitely take some bites.” In the wake of the deadly windstorm that swept through southeast Texas last…
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