Insect-control expert Russell Lamp doesn't always play to an audience when doing a snatch-and-grab in the dark of night.

But on a warm night in Temperance recently, a dozen or so people gathered in front of a two-unit condominium on a cul-de-sac off Jackman Road. A couple pulled up chairs in a garage to watch from a safe distance.

The owner of Integrated Pest Control of Curtice, Ohio, was getting ready to remove a nest of hornets.

Removing nests isn't a big deal for most pest exterminators. For Mr. Lamp, the insects inside that nest are what really matter.

"I'm in a business of picking up money off a tree," he said.

Mr. Lamp is one of a handful of people who collect living wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets and sell them to drug companies to develop insect sting kits.

At 1659 Spruce Lane, dusk had faded to dark and the hornets had returned to their hive for the night. Mr. Lamp called an end to the vigil.

"It's showtime," he said.

He climbed a ladder under the tree and shoved a rubber hose into the hive's dime-sized opening, pumping carbon dioxide inside.

The nest was pulled down and torn open. The hornets, unconscious from the gas, were removed, sorted, and placed in a screen-enclosed box.

The female insects, the only ones that sting, will be frozen, packed in dry ice, and shipped to Vespa Laboratories Inc. in Spring Mills, Pa. The venom will be used to manufacture allergenic extracts.

Mr. Lamp and his 18-year-old assistant, Jake Pugh, sorted their bees by sex before shipping, increasing the amount of money they will receive from the laboratory.

"I guess that makes me a sexist," Mr. Lamp joked.

Vespa's venom products are used primarily as starting materials or active pharmaceutical ingredients for the manufacture of allergenic extracts.

Allergic reactions to insect stings are painful; they can also be deadly.

The American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology in Arlington Heights, Ill., says insect stings send more than 500,000 people to hospital emergency rooms each year. At least 50 known deaths are attributed to allergic reactions each year, according to the professional association of allergists and immunologists.

An allergist can prescribe a self-administered epinephrine or adrenaline kit. Someone who has had an allergic reaction to an insect sting has a 60 percent chance of having another similar or worse reactions if stung again, the association says.

Vespa's president, Miles Guralnick, said preventive treatment, or venom allergy shots, works by introducing gradually increasing doses of purified insect venom in an attempt to prevent future allergic reactions to insect stings.

Independent bee collectors are an important component to the industry and are rewarded well for their efforts, Mr. Guralnick said.

Not all of Mr. Lamp's money is found growing on trees.

Some of it is pulled from the sides of buildings or from farm equipment, where paper wasps frequently build nests. Those nests can be smaller but more numerous.

On a brilliant, hot afternoon at a farm on Billman Road in western Ottawa County, Mr. Lamp and his assistant were on another collection mission.

The pair were swinging butterfly nets above farm machinery, where paper wasps emerged from the machinery, spiraling angrily in search of the source of the banging Mr. Lamp and Mr. Pugh used to draw them out.

Once the nets were filled and twisted closed, they were placed in a coffee can. A hose was shoved in, giving the bugs a good dose of carbon dioxide. The stunned male wasps were tossed aside, and the rest were placed in the screened cage.

Tom Schuffenecker, the farm owner, watched for a few minutes before returning to his mower.

There's no cost for farmers, who are glad to be rid of the pests.

"We've been doing this for how many years?" Mr. Schuffenecker asked Mr. Lamp. "He just comes by and starts cleaning up. It's a long-term relationship."

Mr. Schuffenecker said he'll call Mr. Lamp if he has a particularly large hive he wants removed. Generally, Mr. Lamp likes to let the nests grow through the end of summer.

Mr. Lamp, whose calls take him into southeastern Michigan and as far west as Archbold in Fulton County, also works from Cleveland, where he has an answering service. He has been collecting insects for 16 years.

Larger nests mean more bees inside. That's where Mr. Lamp's paycheck is written.

Collectors are paid by the gram from laboratories like Vespa. Each shipment is weighed by the laboratory, minus any male bees or waste products from the nest.

On the other side of the state, Jeff Goff, a college chemistry professor in Canton, is in his first season collecting insects. Unlike Mr. Lamp and Mr. Pugh, he prefers to work in protective gear to fend off stings.

"I'm more on the cowardly end of it," Mr. Goff said in a telephone interview.

He sees collecting as a great way to make money in the summer, when he's not teaching. So far this season he's pulled down 120 nests and is getting ready to empty his freezer and send his first batch to the laboratory.

Like Mr. Lamp, the Canton collector also removes nests gratis.

Neither the collectors nor Vespa will discuss how much money exchanges hands.

Mr. Guralnick, who's also an entomologist, called it "a fair amount."

"A motivated collector can make a substantial amount of money" for a summer's work, he said.

"If they're not motivated, it's tough to do and tough to get established," he said in a telephone interview. "They've got to work hard under difficult conditions."

While money is a motivator for some collectors, other get satisfaction from knowing that the stinging insects they're collecting will be used to help people deal with severe allergic reactions.

"Some collectors put that as the No. 1 reason," Mr. Guralnick said. "They articulate to us that they're glad to help people who suffer insect allergies."

For others, he said, "It's just the thrill, and in some cases, it's the money."

Mr. Lamp, who estimated he gets stung about 3,000 times a season, said he'd rather work carefully, without a head net or protective clothing, particularly in hot weather. He shrugs off the stings as part of the occupational hazards. The larger nests are gathered at night when hornets and yellow jackets are not active.

Mr. Lamp said he collects 10 species of stinging insects. Some, such as mud wasps, are useless for the laboratory.

Vespa (the Italian word for wasp) collects only insects it deems "medically important" and does not deal with pests whose stings are rarely encountered.

Vespa, founded in 1977 by Dr. Allen Benton, was sold to Pharmacia AB in 1982 and became part of ALK-Abello, a Danish producer of pharmaceuticals for allergy vaccination.

Vespa says it has a handful of collectors in Ohio. The company won't disclose the exact number nationwide either, saying it's more than 50.

A walk-in freezer at the Pennsylvania laboratory holds the raw material collected and awaiting processing. And because researchers are dealing with micrograms of protein material, Mr. Guralnick said, "You don't get much venom from a single insect."

Mr. Guralnick began his career working for Dr. Benton, collecting insects for his research.

"If I had my choice right now that's where I'd rather be. It's a blast. It really is," he said.

Contact: Jim Sielicki at: jsielicki@theblade.com or 419-724-6078.

First Published August 20, 2006, 3:22 p.m.