Squeeze: Some new information has come to light. Ever since your post, I've been perplexed. I knew my father, who was honest to a fault (and who I never heard tell a story that wasn't true), could not possibly have been mistaken. He was born (in a farmhouse) on a working family farm in Virginia, in 1906. He knew more about the outdoors than anyone I've ever seen, and definitely knew Yellowjackets from Honeybees. In fact, he taught me how to find (wild)Honeybee nests in the woods, and extract the honey. I have little problem doing it to this day (even with the scarcity of wild Honeybees). When I was a child, on the farm, and noticed a bunch of dug-up Yellowjacket combs, he explained to me what they were, and that was when he told me he had eaten their honey. Fast forward to today: I e-mailed a beekeeper friend of mine in Virginia, who I thought may know if Yellowjackets make honey. He told me they DO make honey and store it in combs. He said when he was a child (he's 70) his father designated he and his brothers to rid the yard of Yellowjacket nests in late Spring and early Summer, so his mother and sisters did not inadvertently get stung. He told me he's dug up hundreds in his youth, and found honeycombs in many of them. He told me to ask J.D.--who would surely verify this fact, as he used to charge people $1.00 to dig up Yellowjacket nests they had found, or $1.50 if he came and searched their yards and dug them up (many years ago; J.D. just turned 87 years old). J.D. has no phone (doesn't trust them), and believes a computer is akin to a spaceship; but I will see him later in the week when I go to the country. Of course, as you mentioned, Yellowjackets do not winter over in their hives. It was only I who assumed that, after being told by my father that they made honey--I figured it was for the Winter. I NOW believe they make honey to consume during the warm season, while they are active. It makes sense to me that since they feed on nectar, why not store some?? Another interesting fact, discovered with a search. Adults feed primarily on foods rich in sugars and carbohydrates (fruits, flower nectar, and tree saps). The insects, meat and fish they bring to the nest (hive) is fed to the larvae, and the larvae, in turn, secrete a sugar-like material that the adults dearly love. This exchange is called trophallaxis. Could it be that this sugar-like material is stored, and IT is the honey?? I do not report this to diminish your information--that they don't make honey--but I assume you believe that from reading available material. Is there anyone reading this post who has PERSONALLY dug up, for instance, 25 or 30 Yellowjacket nests and can definitely state that they found NO honeycombs? I've mostly seen combs already dug up by animals--and empty. But I BELIEVE I've noticed two distinct sizes of combs. I generally, after destroying a hive, just let it be--as it usually was a burn-out. Now, I'm determined to dig up a number of Yellowjacket nests, to see for myself--and talk to J.D. Hopefully, I can start with the one I poured Alcohol in (but I fear I'll have to dig up a large Azalea to get at it). Maybe there needs to be an addendum to the literature.

There are several triggers that cause bees to attack and vibrations are the main ones. That's why when you were ten feet from the nest with your trimmer they came after you. They are more mellow in cool weather, but as the weather warms up they get more fractious, just like all the rest of us. Face it the heat just makes us all cranky. We have a nest or two on our porch every summer and when the temps go up, we keep our voices down and don't slam the door. But I also have my own rememdy for getting rid of them, but it does include murder. Wait til early morning when it's cool and the bees are feeling kinda sluggish and take the vacuum out there. Using the extension wands, get the hose as close to the nest as you can. Then turn the vacuum on. They fly towards the noise and then *thooop!!* they're gone. I use the hose to knock the nest down and then mash it. Sometimes I just can 't let them stay because they just get too aggressive. But you have to be very careful with paper wasps, because they most certainly will sting. DH and I have both been stung a couple of times and it's quite painful. Cheryl

Oh man oh man...are the wasps bad this year!!! I've killed one giant nest (30-ft spray from Specracide...) and a couple of small 'start ups'. The house nextdoor has some wasps building into the a/c drainage pipe that runs to the roof line. I don't know the neighbor so don't know if they would care of not. That nest must enormous behind the wall by now, but you can't see it due to the metal surround. I'm tempted to just spray w/my hornet spray, but what if they try to escape inside the house?

Twice in past houses I've lived in, I've found a yellowjacket nest entry hole beneath the bottommost board of the siding. One was right next to the back door of the house and if closed the door too hard they would come out to defend the nest. I tried one store brand of wasp/hornet killer on them, but it didn't seem to have any effect. The force of the spray would knock them to the ground, but they would shake off, and fly away, seemingly unharmed. I tried a stronger name-brand wasp/hornet spray, that killed the wasps on contact, but those in the nest stopped using the poisined entrance, and found another way out of the nest directly into the basement. Another time I had a yellowjacket nest (which is probably what pennysworth son found) in the ground in our yard 3 feet from the corner of where we would set up the volleyball net. (Bump. Set. Sting. :-) Based on a suggestion from a friend, I ran an extension cord out into the yard and set the shop-vac there, with its snout right next to the hive entrance, sucking up the wasps as they left or came back, for several hours. The next morning when I crept out to check on the nest, I discovered that something had come by in the night, dug open the entrance to the nest, and pulled out and munched on the remaining larva filled nest pieces, leaving a hole 6 inches across and about 2 feet deep.