Q&A with Kenneth Kay (Mosquito Joe)

Kenneth Kay, known as Mosquito Joe around town, is a part-time detective, part-time exterminator. He inspects, detects, and corrects mosquito breeding sites and then eliminates the adults.

What sort of purpose do you feel in your job and/or why do you believe your line of work is important and meaningful?

We eliminate outdoor pests, bringing health and happiness to families and pets in Long Beach and surrounding cities.

What is the most exciting part of your day-to-day work?

Seeing the smiles and thumbs up from our customers who are glad they don't have mosquitos biting them anymore.

What do you think the future of your industry looks like, let's say in 15 years? What impact will it be making? How will it be different from what you do now?

Unfortunately, these new mosquitos are not going away, so the need for our services and more will be ongoing. With continued advances in botanical and other natural options, we are the go to company for environmentally friendly treatments.

When did you decide you wanted to enter this field? What steps did you take to make that decision a reality?

We chose this business because we struggled with mosquitos ourselves, so we want to help as many people as we can. We had to study and get licensed, but it is worth it to be an expert in our field.

For any students, age 12-18 who thinks your job sounds interesting, what advice would you give them to help them learn/train/explore your field?

Pay attention in science class! Insects are all around us and some are beneficial and others are invasive and destructive. It is important to learn how all living things are interconnected, but not necessarily in a good way and to learn what we can do to affect them.

What makes Long Beach a great place to live and work as it relates to your industry?

Long Beach is a large and diverse community, and one thing we all share is a desire to be bite free. We want to help make this happen for our neighbors in the LBC