Norman Gary Is . . . . The Bee Man

For some reason the sound of a buzzing bee has not only humans, but also, animals like the mighty elephant, scampering for cover. But not Californiaman Norman Gary - This bee expert goes out of his way to seek them out and even walks around, 'wearing' them.

Not only that, the world renowned bee wrangler also knows how to train bees to do tricks like 90° turns or direct a swarm so that they move any way he wants them to. And, it gets better - He can instruct the bees, while they are on other people's bodies too. It is therefore not surprising that whenever a bee-related scene is required in a movie or television show, Norman is the man everybody turns to.

Over the years, he has worked his bee magic in 18 films, over 70 television shows including the Animal Planet and X-Files, starred in six commercials and even broken two Guinness World records for bee-related stunts..

Mr. Gary, who lives in Citrus Heights, CA, first encountered bees at the age of 15, when he came across a dead tree that housed a wild honeybee nest. He decided to adopt the insects as his special pets and even built an artificial hive for them - Since then, he has been hooked. He even graduated from college with a degree in Apiculture.

He uses one of two methods to control a bee swarm. The food reward system, whereby he tempts them with a sugar solution mixed in with a plant extract like peppermint and the Queen bee pheromone method, something he devised himself. He says that by using the latter, he can attract a swarm of as many as one million bees! While Norman's skills may seem magical, he is quite modest about his talents, saying that bees only sting if they sense a danger to their hives.

Norman of course, has not gone completely unscathed during his lifetime of research with these stinging insects. He estimates that he has probably gotten stung about 75,000 times - Yikes! To read more about this amazing man check out his website: www.normangary.com.

Resources: normangary.com, dailymail.co.uk