Beyond Data Management Podcast
The definitive podcast for government data management and stories from the field - with a special focus on Environment Health professionals.
Beyond Data Management Podcast
What Can We Learn from New Orleans' Rodent Management? Claudia Riegel NEHA AEC Kansas City
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Cameron sits down with Claudia Riegel, Director of Mosquito & Termite Control for the City of New Orleans, to discuss her CDC Gulf South Vector project, rodent data work, program continuity since 1964, proactive media strategies, and her accidental path into vector control. Recorded live on the exhibit floor at NEHA AEC 2026 in Kansas City. Beyond Data Management, powered by HS GovTech.
Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas Beyond@hscloudsuite.com
This is the Beyond Data Management Podcast, powered by HS GovTech. Now live from Kansas City, here's Cameron Garrison.
SPEAKER_03Welcome back live as we are sitting here live in the exhibit hall, not live to YouTube. We'll get these posted probably uh this evening. So we're shooting them on Tuesday, day two, uh, from the exhibit hall here at the AEC for Nihon 2026 in Kansas City. And I actually I wish we'd been recording for the last like hour. We've been sitting here chatting while everything got dialed in. We're we're fighting with some new robot cameras and things here um outside of the studio. But um Claudia Regal from New Orleans. Thanks, Cameron. You host you guys had uh was it two or three years ago you hosted Nikon?
SPEAKER_01We did. Yeah, I was so excited.
SPEAKER_03It was such a fun trip we were going down the bourbon street. I it's just a beautiful mugging hot.
SPEAKER_01Were you were you on the pest tour that evening?
SPEAKER_03I I did not get that one. Oh, I'm so sorry. So you like where to even start? Why don't we start with this? You're gonna be playing the uh the anchor round, closing out the conference, right? I am you have a keynote coming up, yeah. So maybe plug that and then let's talk about like you're a very unique kind of animal in the regulatory side, especially EH, in that you're doing a lot more than most agencies have been able to in vector.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, so so thank you so much for inviting me to do this podcast. Super excited. And uh, yeah, so I'm closing out the meeting. It's gonna be on Thursday.
SPEAKER_03No early flights, don't make your flights.
SPEAKER_01I hope people attend, right? But they will. If the people are really active at this meeting, so very exciting. And so I'm gonna talk all about our Centers for Disease and Control Prevention project. We have two projects actually, but the big one is the Gulf South Vector. It's the Vector Educational Centers for Training, Outreach, and Resources. So we're entering the fourth year of a five-year project, and it's really about increasing capacity and building infrastructure for prevention and also response of vector-borne diseases. And then I'm also going to talk about our super cool project that we've been doing about rodent control and data. And actually, that's funded about the other group in Atlanta from the environmental group. So, how do you use data and what does that mean for improving uh rodent control?
SPEAKER_03And what kind of data are you involved in that?
SPEAKER_01So it's, you know, we started out that project thinking like, okay, let's use all this data that different rodent control programs have. And honestly, there aren't that many, okay. Um, but when we did surveys, we found out that people don't really care about the data. All they want really is where do I go get information about rodent control? So we're doing the work in New Orleans, but we've also created a lot of um resources uh for folks. So I'm gonna talk a lot about that.
SPEAKER_03That is that's a lot for one keynote.
SPEAKER_01It will have a whole hour and a half. I'm very excited. That's actually really nice.
SPEAKER_03You um so there's not specifically a rat control function designated in many on on the environmental side in most jurisdictions, is there?
SPEAKER_01No, they are they're not. So um actually there aren't that many programs anymore nationwide. I mean, if you look about back in the 1940s and 50s, there were so many rodent control programs across the United States. And over the course of time, as defunding programs for environmental health and health, a lot of those programs have gone away.
SPEAKER_03Were they victims of their own success to a degree? Like the rodent problem got better, and so people blindly took the money away.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, I cannot tell you that. Yeah, you're not used to it.
SPEAKER_03You weren't there in the 40s and 50s stuff.
SPEAKER_01I don't know, right? But I can tell you that our industry likes to work in the background, doing our work diligently and quiet, right? Not promoting. And not necessarily promoting. So, um, you know, and I think sort of the history of environmental health and and public health, that seems to be an easy one to cut to cut. And so, you know, we're working really hard for awareness, um, especially with these projects, but how important what we do every day is keeping people safe, right? In a livable community.
SPEAKER_03Are rodents getting worse? Or is it the social media effect that puts them on every time someone sees a rat dragging a piece of pizza up the subway stairs?
SPEAKER_01You know, look, I mean, yeah, I mean everyone's got an iPhone now or or like some sort of Android, right? Phone, and so it's easy, and and I find that a lot of times with rodent control, it can be very easily sensationalized, right? Um but you know, look, I mean, if we look at why rodents occur. So urbanization, lack of infrastructure infrastructure that is declining, for example, your sewers. I I live in New Orleans, right? So I work in New Orleans, a very old city, old infrastructure. So um, but I'll tell you, we're not the ratios city. Okay, we do a lot of work down there, but it's it's a challenge. And so, and then you've got areas with tourism, you've got how you pick up trash, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, sanitation and the the live the bossing away, trash is a big deal.
SPEAKER_01It's a huge thing, and so those are the things that are gonna proliferate. Um rodents and and so New Orleans.
SPEAKER_03New York doesn't have this. They do, so actually, or how do they're actually in the health department.
SPEAKER_01So there's a whole big division. They have our wonderful team in New York City. Um, actually led by um the rodent part of it, led by one of the preeminent rodentologists, Dr. Bobby Corrigan. He's there, he is amazing.
SPEAKER_03He's got his hands full in New York.
SPEAKER_01He does, and so but there's other really great people there in New York, and they're doing a big initiative on how to handle trash and um you know how that can impact control the the sanit the sanitation and the sanitation is huge. Like it again, you know, if you go to New York City, there's other cities and we fight this in New Orleans and a lot of places that like when that trash bag goes from inside that structure or building and gets put onto the sidewalk, that's rap food right there. Feeding the animals, and it's just not rodents, too. I mean raccoons and urban wildlife, I mean flies, I mean that's all related. So, you know, trash handling is absolutely critical uh component for for rodent management.
SPEAKER_03And New Orleans, I guess on the vector, the like the mosquito side and things, really good place to blaze territory, right? Because you've got the humidity and the water and got the mosquitoes, right?
SPEAKER_01So again, so New Orleans um has a had a very long history. I think it's really important to always go back in history and and read and what happened, right? Uh hundreds of years ago. But uh yellow fever, the last epidemic of yellow fever was in 1905 in New Orleans.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um you've had over the history of time in in the United States, you know, it wasn't United States at the time, but malaria, for example. So in New Orleans, I mean, we're not a huge city. I would say we're a medium-sized city, but we get a lot of visitors and a lot of people, and we're essentially surrounded by water. That whole region is surrounded by water.
SPEAKER_03You really are, and it's below water level too, right?
SPEAKER_01Yes, about 80% below sea level. And so, but the main thing is is that you've we've got several species of important mosquitoes, you've got uh marsh areas, um, and you know, we're subject to tidal surges and storms and all those things. So all that takes into consideration.
SPEAKER_03You said important mosquitoes. Yeah, so important as it for their their role in the ego.
SPEAKER_01Right, so we have medically important mosquitoes, and we also have lots of nuisance mosquitoes as well, which is you know part of mosquito control. So medical, uh medically important as well as nuisance mosquitoes go hand in hand, but they're very important to manage. So they're both important. So yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's really, really interesting.
SPEAKER_01But I will say we've had a team there, we've got had a program since 1964. So a lot of work has been done over the decades to get us to where we are in there. Very much. Actually, continuity-wise, I'm only the fourth director since 1964.
SPEAKER_03That's remarkable.
SPEAKER_01And uh it's great because it allows you to build programs and set goals. So myself and the directors before us, you know, we set one year, three year, five year, and ten year goals.
SPEAKER_03That's unheard of in government, right? Usually it's the next election cycle if you're lucky.
SPEAKER_01And so and so, but with that continuity, you know, I can look 10 years out and our team can look out and say, where do we need to be? What infrastructure? And so we're able to look for grants and monies and collaboration. We are not.
SPEAKER_03I was gonna say because there that would be a miracle feat if you grew and stayed that consistent back on 10-year goals, because I every what two years there's an election, probably just like everywhere else.
SPEAKER_01No, in New Orleans it's every four.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay. So the mayor gets a little bit more time than there was in the last year.
SPEAKER_01And then typically the mayors get re-elected, so it's about every eight years.
SPEAKER_03Stability. I know that it's uh some people say, Oh, it's a political issue. No, it's like there are some benefits to incumbency, which is continuity and stability.
SPEAKER_01You know, I've been there for um in February will be 23 years, right? So at least at the city of New Orleans. And so of course you have the mayors and you know, they set policy and where they want to go. But there's also a lot of other people that have good continuity. And so I look, when we're working in this field, we need to make sure that we're not working in silos. And so it is collaborating with sanitation, code enforcement, environmental folks at the health departments, at the state, local, federal, all these folks. And so with the continuity, you also build these long-term relationships and you've got a network, right? And I think that's what New Orleans does really well is talk to each other. And Homeland Security, for example, is another group that's in that mix. And so really we work with fire department, we work with all the EMS, the we work with a lot of federal big collection of of uh huge agency logos. At least like that's just like in our city sphere, right? But we work with our regional universities, we work with private industry and collaboration. So I always use the example, like even private industry. We do lots of training, right? And New Orleans, we've actually expanded it through the Gulf South vector, but we've had a long history of uh working with our uh pest control operators, for example. So we do a lot of the training and uh recertification for them. So we have those partners as well. And so I always say like you can take like a dollar here and a dollar from this group, and next thing you know, you put the money together.
SPEAKER_03It actually adds up to real money.
SPEAKER_01It does, and it expands the reach, right? Because at the end of the day, all these folks want the same thing. Yeah, they want a good livable community, they don't want pest in vector issues, they want, I want, they want our visitors to come here and have a New Orleans.
SPEAKER_03It's also marketing because you get so many visitors and we get tons of visitors, right?
SPEAKER_01And so look, I don't want anybody coming to New Orleans um and having a rodent experience, right? So, or that rodent that runs across.
SPEAKER_03Rodent experience, that's an awesome way to put it.
SPEAKER_01Right, that runs across that restaurant when they're enjoying.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_01So once it's a of course it's an environmental health and public health issue, but it's also that's when the camera comes up and say, hey, look, this is what I saw in New Orleans, I don't like it, or don't go there, right? We want people to come visit.
SPEAKER_03So you're kind of being the opposite, which is so smart. Um, you're actually building a really good media operation. We were chatting before we went on, and I think a lot of agencies are like, we don't want videos from tourists with a rat showing up online, so they actually do the wrong thing and shy away from it. You're leaning in, aren't you?
SPEAKER_01Uh look, we have leaned in to media since the very beginning. And I'm actually super proud of New Orleans in this respect because they allow us to talk to the news. Of course, you have to go through the process.
SPEAKER_03That is a key point because a lot of times it goes to the uh the public relations officer or the PIO, right? And that's where requests go to die.
SPEAKER_01So the requests go there, they're really good about reading. I I look, I would say everything that I wanted to have done, I've been able to do. So which is really great. And so it's not just me, we've got other folks that are, you know, specialists with termites and uh entomologists that are there, emergency response. And so we like to have a big presence. We also have social media. So if somebody wants to follow us at Nola Mosquito, please follow us.
SPEAKER_03At Nola Mosquito.
SPEAKER_01We do lots of really great stuff. Um so we have a lot we have our YouTube channel where we do, for example, uh webinars on rodent control. So we have a seven-part series on rodent control. We've got a four-part series on termite management, on mosquito control, mosquito ID. So all of these things are great. And I'm gonna can I tell you a story?
SPEAKER_03Yes, please.
SPEAKER_01All right, so let's talk a little bit about um with COVID, right? During the shutdown. Um so we continue to work. New Orleans um pest management, public health was considered an essential service, so we did not miss a beat, right? It was straight on, let's keep going. So when the city shut down, I I forget exactly what day, but I think it was March 6th, something like that. Don't hold me specifically specifically to that day, but it was right around there. Um you know, it wasn't unexpected uh where rodents were going to come out looking for food. And it was actually a global phenomena, I would say. It would have we saw it all over the world. And what was happening is, you know, you've got locations where rodents were not managed like they needed to be. Um and these animals didn't have their food source that was handed to them on the daily basis.
SPEAKER_03So they the cafeteria stopped serving.
SPEAKER_01Pretty much. And so they came out um into the streets looking for rodents or looking for food. And we were right there. And so fortunately, our city and the communications they did a great job, and we were able to be proactive and let people know hey, this is what's happening.
SPEAKER_03It's not a rat apocalypse on top of the phone.
SPEAKER_01And then also don't get rid of your pest control contract. There because of the lot of them, right? So I don't know if you remember about that, but if you're not gonna cancel all this, you're cutting cost, right? And so fortunately, pest control in many cases were not cut. And between pest management, our services that we were providing, we really were able to make a huge dent uh in some of these commercial areas.
SPEAKER_03So you cut it down. It was that an art was that tough though for some of the businesses? They're like, there's a lot of like the government made me shut down and now they want me to keep paying my pest control bill. How how did I I'm assuming being so communicative actually was part of your secret weapon. How did you handle that?
SPEAKER_01And so do you know at the time you know, being really active in emergency response at the city, uh there were almost week daily uh press conferences by the mayor, executive staff, too.
SPEAKER_03And your governor at the time, I think, was doing them too, uh, because they were playing clips of him.
SPEAKER_01Was it Mitch Landro at the time or who that's before that was a previous mayor, so that's a that's three mayors back.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Oh wow, okay, I'm behind. I remember Ray Nagan during uh Katrina. So I know just enough about New Orleans history to be dangerous.
SPEAKER_01I think I am on my one, two, three. I'm on my fourth mayor right now. So um I think I have another one or two to go, right? So probably another one after that. But we were able to talk to the mayor through our daily briefing and said, Look, mayor, could you please in your press conference talk about how important it is to make the message out from the top? She did. So she got the message out to the public. And I think what also happened was businesses, and I'm sure there were so many businesses that were really hurt financially, but many businesses, what we found, especially in the French quarter, is that they took the opportunity to do the renovations and do some of the cleaning and the work that you just can't really do on a day-to-day, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I think that was really super important. And in between all the efforts of pest management, making those changes, removing those food sources, uh, we really uh were able to hammer, you know, the rodent populations in the area.
SPEAKER_03That is excellent. So you've mentioned a couple of times the group, and you guys do have we've talked about media now. You have a great site, and as you mentioned, a bunch of stuff up there. But we're gonna show one of the clips now is fairly short from your site so that folks can and we'll put the link to this in the description below when this is posted on all the platforms. So let's go ahead and roll a clip. What are we set up? What are we getting ready to see?
SPEAKER_01So, you know, part of what we're doing with Gulf South Vector is really to educate people. What is a vector? And we're creating these great little short films to educate professionals as well as general public on what is uh some of these topics.
SPEAKER_03So, what is a vector? We'll roll this now.
SPEAKER_02The Gulf South Vector Project brings people together to keep communities and animals safe from vector-borne diseases. But what's a vector? Vectors are living organisms that spread diseases to animals and people. Some common vectors include blood-feeding insects like fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes. Most of us have been fighting insect at some point in our lives. If a vector is carrying a harmful pathogen, like a parasite, bacteria, or virus, that illness can be transmitted through the body. Not every biting insect carries a disease. Around the world, over 700,000 people die each year from preventable diseases like malaria, metile virus. That's nearly the population that's important. And I have a lot of people can be affected, but there are certain populations at greater risk. Children, the elderly people who are immunocomposed, those who work outside, income populations are especially. We each have a role to play in preventing disease. But thankfully, we're not alone.
SPEAKER_03The CDC and many different experts work together to ensure the public health and well-being of your community, your family, and you so I think that our mics might have been hot there when I was like, that's very high production value. Really good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um I I can be I like I think people are getting snob, not snobbier, but more discerning that way. If it looks like homegrown content, they're very good production value on that.
SPEAKER_01It is, you know, you know, one of the things we wanted to do is communicate w how important the work we do. And, you know, there is a place for your iPhone video of maybe inspecting uh a container, for example, or explaining to someone how to clean. Right in the field, how to clean a birdbath, right? Most people think you just turn over the birdbath, fill it up. No, no, no, no. You have to actually scrub the bird bath, remove those mosquito eggs that are adhere to the side, and then they stick to it. So there is a place for those kinds of videos, but we really wanted to communicate how critical and how important it is. And you really do need that with a high production video. And this, a part of our Gulf Sub Vector team, we have an amazing team of researchers, um, industry, government, local government, vector control programs. And one of the people on there, she is an artist. And she works in film and she has filmmakers that are part of her sphere. And so for a very, and this is this is government funded, so this is not high production cost meaning what we're paying. It's part of that research.
SPEAKER_03You're having to be very clever about getting it at a discount.
SPEAKER_01At a discount, because it's this kind of work is extremely expensive if you just go out into private private industry. So, you know, we've got other videos coming.
SPEAKER_03Um I think you're even thinking about launching your own podcast, aren't you? Which would be awesome.
SPEAKER_01Yes, we absolutely are going to. I'm not gonna be your competitor, right?
SPEAKER_03So no, not at all. We need more. And we'd love to like to get you on actually when we're in the studio and do a deeper dive and we can cross-promote content.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03It's the same community and they need right. They need more. There's a void uh out there of this stuff.
SPEAKER_01It's a huge void. And I think it's I want to do it in a way that it's fun, that you know, tells our story of what we do. We do such important work, and you know, how do you get the next generation involved? And I I really do think that it's getting them, you know, more interested or at least let people know, students, what do we do and how you do it? And there's so many different areas of environmental health and it's a very good idea.
SPEAKER_03Accidental profession for so many people in it. And they they backed into it or second career. And uh it's stunning, that's the more common answer than I went to college knowing I wanted to do this.
SPEAKER_01All right, Cameron, I do you wanna why don't you ask me how I got to where I was?
SPEAKER_03You get into how'd you become the rat, mosquito, et cetera lady for the city of New Orleans?
SPEAKER_01Totally by accident. And so my background is in plant pathology. So I am a plant pathologist by training. So I grew up in Illinois, uh outside of Chicago. I ended up going to Purdue, studying uh plant molecular biology. So I thought my world was going to be agriculture. And um and I took a class one day and um it was learned I learned about nematodes. So I was like, oh, this is pretty cool. But I always knew I wanted to go on in school. So I ended up at University of Georgia working in plant pathology. So I've taken virology and bacteriology and all these other cool things, which actually helps me today. And then I ended up at University of Florida for a PhD working in nematology, but I worked in that department with a bunch of entomologists. And so that is not really my background, entomology is not really my background, but there's a professor there, Dr. Phil Kaler, who's a renowned urban uh entomologist, and actually I have a podcast, not a podcast, I have a webinar all about his life, super interesting. You can go to our YouTube channel and see it. But he used to set up um interviews for students uh working in the area, and so he set one up for me and uh make a long story short, I ended up working in um working with termites. But the intent really was to work in uh plant pathology nematology, but as I was going through the process with this company, they said, hey, look, we have a hiring freeze, can't take you right now, sorry. So I said, okay, I got something else, but they came back a couple months later and said, Look, I have a job in Baton Rouge working with termites. And I'm like, what? I didn't study this, right? But I think it's really important for students if you keep an open mind.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_01But what I did learn all those years is how to do research, how to be a critical thinker, all those things, right? So then I ended up moving to that, worked in industry for a while, and I actually worked with the city of New Orleans for those four years in a position open there, and that's when I hopped over. And so then a year and a half later, totally accidental. Hurricane Katrina comes, and then you do everything from insurance and learn about FEMA and rodent control, and it's just it's awesome. Essentially, you know what I do. Totally by accident.
SPEAKER_03Like you're it you're infectiously enthusiastic about it. I love it. You really do need to do the podcast because people would really love it. Plus, you just have you have rats to work with as your stories and shortcuts.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03And that's just come on, that's the best.
SPEAKER_01It's the best. And so we we have lots of videos and we use uh game cameras quite a bit because we really need to connect the visual to what we've been saying. So it might just be a rodent climbing up a conduit, for example, but you can actually see it climbing up, and so you look you can really see tell people about the biology and why they're able to do that. And so you can also use those tools, of course, to educate your person, your stakeholder, who whatever building you're in, and all of that.
SPEAKER_03The old adage is true, right? A picture is worth a thousand words.
SPEAKER_01In this industry, it really is.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. So when you do it, please let us know. Come on, uh the studio and promote it, and we'll like I'd love this. This will be really exciting. Absolutely. Um, I'd really appreciate it. Good luck. Thank you so much for 90 minutes to close it. I think you're gonna it's gonna be well attended. Uh, okay. How can it not be?
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03Claudia, we'll talk soon. And we'll have her back on, folks, and we'll put some details.
SPEAKER_01All right.
SPEAKER_03Do you mind if we put how people can contact you in the show? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, please. We will do that. Yes. All right, that was fun conversation there. We're getting ready to wrap up here from the exhibit hall. I think we've got about an hour left before they're gonna tear us down and kick us out. But for all of us here at the Beyond Data Management Podcast, powered by HSGov Tech, I'm Cameron Garrison, live in Kansas City at Niha AEC 2026, and we'll see you next time.