This metal mosquito statue is the size of an adult human, not an adult mosquito, and it sits outside of the Disease Vector Education Center that the district operates in St. Johns County. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today
Published on May 16, 2025 at 12:25 pm
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Trish Becker is the latest elected member of the Anastasia Mosquito Control District board in St. Johns County to resign in just three months.
However, unlike former Commissioner Martha Gleason, who resigned due to personal reasons and concerns about the board’s mismanaging its finances, Becker says she is leaving because her husband got a job in another state.
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“I love the board. I love the people and my job,” Becker told Jacksonville Today. “My husband got promoted, so we’re getting transferred out.”
The Mosquito Control board levies taxpayer dollars to spray pesticides and control the local mosquito population, but also to educate people about mosquito-borne diseases.
Becker was first elected to the board in 2018. She says she’s proud of increasing the wages for the district’s employees and helping get the Disease Vector Education Center — or the mosquito museum, depending on whom you ask — up and running.
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Since it opened last March, the Mosquito Control District says more than 11,000 people have visited the center. According to data from the district, more than half of those people were local residents, and many heard about the education center through word of mouth.
The education center was even featured recently by The Washington Post.
The development of the education center wasn’t free of controversy, though. Members of the public, and former Commissioner Gleason too, have been critical of the cost of the center.
District officials say high construction costs led to a final cost of more than $4.5 million — more than $1 million higher than the district initially projected.
Becker has been the education center’s biggest cheerleader on the Anastasia Mosquito Control District board, and she hopes to see it around for a long time.
“I’m hoping that will prevent at least one person from getting a mosquito disease,” Becker said. “Then it will have all been worth it.”
After Becker’s final meeting in June, the board will be left with two vacancies that she says are unlikely to be filled until sometime this summer.
An interest form is available on the district’s website for people to put their name in the running for one of those seats. The appointment of those seats is ultimately up to Florida Agricultural Commissioner Wilton Simpson, and the extension of this year’s legislative session is having a trickle-down effect on the mosquito control board.
“We’ve heard a couple people have applied, but what we’ve heard from the Department of Agriculture is that they’re waiting for the session to be over, and they think they’re going to be able to appoint someone for (Gleason’s seat) in July,” Becker said. “There’s no timeline. It’s just on Tallahassee — what they can do.”
The board’s next meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. June 12 at the district’s headquarters, 120 EOC Drive in St. Augustine.
