I have wrangled bees in virtually every imaginable environment for more than 40 years. In the entertainment world I have credits for 18 movies, more than 70 TV shows, and 6 commercials (see filmography). Also I have performed my “Thriller Bee Show” hundreds of times at fairs, festivals, and schools. Without exception, all of my experiences have been positive, highly successful, and widely acclaimed by the entertainment world.

I use two basic techniques for controlling and manipulating the behavior of bees to achieve the desired behavioral events. The first involves attracting “homeless and lost” bees (that I release by the thousands on cue) to a powerful synthetic bee pheromone liquid. I place a few droplets on the subject or target. Then I transfer bees to the area where they cluster. Optionally, I can make them fly to the target. Bees wrangled by these procedures typically are not inclined to sting because stinging behavior is, by nature, defense of the bee colony in the hive. Using this approach I have successfully clustered as many as a million bees on 6 people simultaneously! At the conclusion of the “bee performance” they are recaptured, placed into cages, and returned to their hives.

The second approach is training foraging bees to fly from their hive to gather artificial nectar made from ordinary table sugar with an added fragrance, such as peppermint, anise, etc. This nectar can be placed on any object or living subject. Bees will alight to suck up the food. Foraging bees virtually never sting unless they are stepped on or physically molested in some way, such as a collision. I once trained them to fly into my mouth to collect the food from a small sponge saturated with sugar syrup. I hold the Guiness World record (109 bees held inside my closed mouth for 10 seconds) for this stunt.