YORK, Pa. - When Clay Benton is not working to catch criminals, the Baltimore County police officer is climbing trees and digging holes to capture York County yellow jackets and hornets.

But the part-time insect collector for Spring Mills-based Vespa Laboratories has found the drought that has plagued York County has cut the number of available bugs.

Yellow jackets and hornets are carnivorous. The insects that make up their main food source feed on crops and plants, whose growth might have been hampered by lack of water, said Miles Guralnick, president of Vespa Laboratories.

"If the corn crop is suffering, then the insects that feed on that crop are suffering," he said. "The ecosystem is very connected and impacted by a break in the food chain."

Stored in dry ice

All the yellow jackets and hornets are stored in containers of dry ice and shipped to Vespa Laboratories, said Benton, who lives in West Manchester Township, Pa.

Vespa Laboratories extracts venom protein, a starting material for the production of allergy medication, from yellow jackets, honeybees, hornets and paper wasps.

At the laboratory, teams made up of the Centre County company's 21 employees inspect the bugs and pull the venom sacks from each female insect's abdomen.

Chemical and physical methods are used to remove the venom protein from the sacs, Guralnick said.

A series of quality and purification tests is performed on the venom, which is then shipped to pharmaceutical companies for use in preventative allergy medication.

'95 percent effective'

"A drug that is made using this protein can change the immune system to protect the body from an allergic reaction to insect stings," Guralnick said. "In most cases, it's 95 percent effective."

In a given year, Vespa employees can extract between 100 and 500 grams of venom protein - about enough to fill an 8-ounce cup.

Collectors such as Benton must suffer many a sting to get that venom to Vespa Laboratories.

Neither Benton nor Vespa Laboratories would comment on the salary of an insect collector.

Armed with a bee veil, a pair of bee gloves and a black Eureka vacuum cleaner, Benton ventures from his tan Ford van to do battle with the flying insects.

Captured alive

Benton donates each collection. Most of his business comes from advertising in local publications.

A black tube is connected on one end to the vacuum while the other is taped to a clear plastic bread box.

"Some collectors use empty Gatorade bottles to collect the bugs, but it's much easier to get them out using one of these," Benton said.

A second black tube is connected to the other open end of the breadbox and used to suck the yellow jackets out of the ground.

At times, Benton uses a black rubber mallet to knock on the ground and herd the angry yellow jackets into the tube.

Each insect must be alive when captured and then frozen, or the venom will not be usable, he said. When Benton uses the vacuum, a typical insect nest takes about 45 to 60 minutes to empty, he said.

Some disagreement

Between late July and October, the season for collecting the bugs, Benton said he can capture thousands of yellow jackets and hornets.

The trade-off is one to six stings a day, he said.

"I've been doing this for almost 25 years, and I'm not bothered by it at all," Benton said. "I'm just petrified of snakes."

But not everybody agrees with freezing the bugs in plastic bags and shipping them off to save allergy sufferers.

Yellow jackets and hornets should not be removed from an area unless they pose a high risk to a person who suffers from allergies, said Stephanie Boyles, a wildlife biologist in the Research and Investigation Department for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The insects serve as pollinators and prey on other bugs that can damage crops and trees, she said. "If they were relocating the bugs to somewhere else, that would be one thing," Boyles said. "But they are taking them completely out of the area."