Story by Dan Ariaz
It’s a marvel a career in fighting bulls would lead to a career in fighting the most dangerous insect on earth. The feared mosquito infects hundreds of millions of humans worldwide and kills millions a year. When the bucking chute opened, a door to save millions opened with it for Dan Ariaz. Although a massively muscled, enraged bucking bull was dangerous enough for the bullfighter, Dan, the tiny, biting mosquito offered him a more daunting challenge. Malaria, Bubonic Plague, Dengue Fever, West Nile Virus, Yellow Fever, Encephalitis, Lyme Disease, Chikungunya, Zika, and Bluetongue in livestock and deer herds, are just a few of the diseases that ravage our populations. As he grew up to be a man, Dan’s knowledge of such diseases grew too. Dan was to devote his life into combating disease-carrying mosquitos.
A man from humble roots, Dan was introduced to the ranch life in 1958 when his stepfather, Don Bowman, moved the family from Los Angeles to Smokey Valley, NV. From 1959 to 1962, the family lived on the Babbitt Ranch located near the Grand Canyon. There was no electricity and no heat except for a wood-burning stove. Instead of plumbing, outhouses were used, and water had to be hauled in by truck. Chores were overwhelming. Dan had to care for the ranch horses Dan’s stepdad broke to move cattle in the scorching summer and frigid winter. As a youngster Dan learned the harshness of life on the ranch. At twelve years old, Dan’s stepdad, introduced him to rodeo clowning and bullfighting. He found a new passion, securing rodeo as an integral part of Dan’s life.
At fourteen, he moved to Tollhouse, CA to attend Sierra High School which was known for its outstanding agricultural program. Under the tutelage of Bob and Doreen McColaugh and Tom and Susanne Dean, Dan became a decorated FFA competitor. He excelled in market and showmanship cattle and sheep events throughout California with championship wins at the famed Cow Palace in San Francisco. While in FFA, he began competing in high school bareback, saddle bronc, and bull riding (where he spent more time eating dirt and manure than staying on for the eight second ride). With his athletic ability, two good feet, and love for coming face to face with an angry horned bull, bull fighting was the perfect compromise. Another incentive was the cash from bullfighting he could put in his billfold.
In 1968, Dan was drafted by Uncle Sam into the United States Marine Corps. After boot camp, he fought bulls for the All-Pro-Rodeo Armed Force Teams, which Andy Jaurequi stock contracted. After serving in the military, Dan attended Modesto Junior College, later transferring to the University of Nevada where he continued to fight bulls for the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. Also, during this time, he fought bulls for various stock contractors: RSC (Roddy, Sperick, Cook), Western Rodeo, Christian Brother, J Spear, Prunty and Gondolfo, and others.
‘Clowning around’ brought a new job opportunity for Dan. When in Reno, his clowning act needed a water truck, but Washoe County’s water truck was broken. This wasn’t a problem for the creative ranch kid with plenty of mechanical experience. Dan used a Coors beer pop top lid to adjust the points and fix the truck. The general manager of the Reno Rodeo arena noted his mechanical skills and desire to please, so he offered Dan a job maintaining the livestock pavilions of the Reno Rodeo grounds for Washoe County. The full-time job with insurance and retirement benefits provided enough incentive for Dan not to pursue a card-carrying Professional Rodeo Clown Association career and stay in Reno.
The connections Dan had made in Washoe County and the investigative techniques he learned in the military proved useful. When the Washoe County Health Department posted a job for an environmental investigator, Dan applied and was hired. Responsibilities included tracking down those who damaged or vandalized public lands and fouled water sources. The Vector Control department specialized in insects that transmitted diseases to both man and animals. Occasionally, Dan’s responsibilities would intersect with Vector Control. Insect foggers that dispersed liquid Pyrethrum, a chemical derived from the chrysanthemum plant, were being used by the county to mitigate the bugs and when they wouldn’t start, Dan was the handyman they called. Fixing the foggers connected Dan with the Vector Control Coordinator who requested Dan be his replacement since he was leaving. As the new coordinator, Dan had a lot of learning to do. The only thing he knew about mosquitoes was the sting of their bite. Washoe County’s director of environmental health, Carl Cahill, assisted and supported Dan in his mosquito education, creative brainstorming, and equipment upgrading (all which eventually made Washoe’s County’s mosquito abatement program a success). Having been bitten by the mosquito, Dan now had the resources to bite back.
As the door of cowboying was shutting, a new door was opening that would lead Dan to invent a mosquito-fighting machine. The start of this invention began in 1983, when Dan was fighting bulls at a collegiate rodeo where he saved a young cowboy, a microbiology student from Texas A&M, from serious injury. When this cowboy reached out to Dan to thank him, a mutual interest in mosquitos was discovered. The student was studying Bacillus Thuringiensis, a bacterium also known as Bti which is naturally occurring. It contains toxin producing spores that can target the larvae of black fly, fungus gnats, and mosquitoes. This product seemed to be a brilliant alternative to pesticides that were having disastrous effects on the environment. Washoe County’s expansive ranch lands became the testing ground for Bti.
Such testing revealed a need for an invention. The new product utilized minute granules for application, which rendered the old foggers used to disperse liquid chemicals useless. Dan got to working on how to make something that could work with this new product. In his garage, he created the ARROGUN, a new fogger capable of granular distribution. By 1985, ARROGUN was patented, manufactured in the United States, and sold worldwide.
Since then, Dan’s company, Bio Rational Vector Control, is recognized as a global leader in mosquito abatement. The company has invented a catch-basin which distributes granules into storm drains, a handheld fogger called The Bullet, electric foggers, a sand-fly injection system, and an amphibious dual-purpose vehicle. Now, Dan travels globally to Africa, Australia, Europe, and the Caribbean to teach the benefits of using environmentally conscious products to control mosquitoes. He continues to consult with governments in developing countries on mitigation of disease bearing insects. Presently, he is consulting on the construction of several high-end resorts outside the United States that need his expertise in combating vector-borne diseases. Dan’s well-earned nickname ‘Mazzie Dan’ (Mazzie means mosquito) or ‘Mosquito Killer’ is known throughout the world.
After thirty years of fighting bulls, Dan’s last bull fight was at Truckee California in the early 90’s. By 1998, he had gone full mosquito. As president of the American Mosquito Control Association, he and his team lobbied Congress for funds to combat West Nile Virus. The millions of dollars helped to set up staff, education, health districts, and disease prevention programs. In 2009, Dan was awarded the Medal of Honor from the American Mosquito Control Association in recognition of a career distinguished by leadership, innovation, and dedication in mosquito control.
A lot has changed for Dan. His arena has transformed from dust and dirt to humid swamps and beaches. He now ‘fights’ with a dipper, microscope, and soft chemical applications. His cleats have been traded for rubber boots and he no longer wears make-up, a wig, or a flamboyant clown costume, except when he regularly attends and supports the Rodeo Clown Reunions. The cowboy hat that now rests upside down on a closet shelf has been replaced with a baseball cap embroidered with a mosquito icon and the phrase, ‘Bite Me’. Whether he is wearing Levi’s or shorts, one thing that hasn’t changed is his trophy belt buckle that proudly displays his past in rodeo (and keeps his britches up). Dan loved his life of clowning and fighting bulls, but today he enjoys watching the action from his lounger. As the bulls get meaner and the purse gets deeper, cowboys remain tough competitors as they did in Dan’s era. Although there was a time when one bullfighter did the job of today’s two or three, the goal for these fighters remains the same: protect the cowboy from harm. Dan’s purpose is no longer fighting a nasty, snot-nosed bull to save a man’s life. Now his purpose is to save millions of lives by controlling diseases spread by mosquitoes. When the bucking chute gates opened, new opportunities arose for Dan, which transformed a rodeo clown-bullfighter into an acclaimed mosquito fighter.
