Some people run shrieking from honeybees. Mark Sopko runs toward them.

As Sopko sees it, you've either got "bee fever," or you don't. At 15, he got the bug when he captured his first honeybees -- a hive hanging on a tree branch near his house. Now 36, his fascination hasn't waned.

"When you're a beekeeper, you're in it more so for the love of the bees," he said. "They're fascinating creatures."

Today, Sopko, of Neshanic Station, also is a bee wrangler -- the person to call when an unwanted swarm tries to make a new home inside a tree hollow or a shed, or perhaps inside a living room wall. While people might be inclined to call pest control, Sopko said he's more likely to get a referral from exterminators during bee season -- from first buds in March or April through October and fall flowers -- when bees feed off nectar and pollen.

"The honeybee doesn't need us, but we do need the honeybee," said Sopko, who made eight house calls last week involving swarms, which average about 20,000 bees. "About a third of everything we eat is because of pollination."

Bees pollinate plants such as fruit trees, which then begin to bear fruit. Bees pollinate grass, which is eaten by cows that produce milk. Cotton gets pollinated and clothes get spun.

"So without the honeybee, you wouldn't have so much food and you wouldn't have as many clothes to wear," said Sopko, an animal dentist who described his wrangling as a "part-time hobby job."