This has been just about the worst year for yellow jackets any of us can remember. DH is coming across nests in the woods almost daily with his forestry consulting, our tech is now carrying an epi-pen. We've had 4 ground nests just on our 1 acre, three we've treated and the 4th is out of the way enough we've left it although DH did warn the neighbor even with little likelihood he would have reason to climb up the hill from below.

I've sprayed two nests on my mothers tiny deck in July, and a third just yesterday. She's allergic in that she gets a terrible local reaction to a sting with a lot of discoloration and swelling - requiring doctors care.

There has been a couple of articles on the news concerning them, and the whole PNW is having a banner yellow jacket year.

Thanks for the reminder. We'll be on the lookout. I'm remembering the ones we had last year, and the year before . . .l

I love this time of year, when Fall is coming, but I HATE the yellow jackets.

Over the past week, we've have these big boys flying around. They look like they at the rest of their family.

What the heck are they?

I better tell my dear hubby. He's been chased a few times.

Thanks for the warning, I know we have one in a decorative birdhouse, so DS needs to know that. We frequently check all the eaves and corners of house and fence in the spring.... knocking them down almost weekly, so we do know they are nearby. Sorry you got stung!

I am so sorry you are stung, lucille. We have an underground nest that we just cannot seem to be rid of. Everyone, be careful.

We have them bad here. We have always put out the reusable traps early summer. But one year they were so many we had to empty the traps every day. (Trick is to do that early in the morning just at sunrise while it is still cool.) It was so bad, we had to hire a professional exterminator because they were somewhere in the front yard and you couldn't go out the front door. I got 3 bites on the back of my head in a minute just stepping outside and boy did they hurt! My poor dog got bit every time she went outside to do her business. There can be 4000 -5000 workers per nest. I hate yellow jackets.

reusable yellowjacket trap

caflower, if there are thousands per nest, a little trap like that isn't going to do much.

If I had that problem, I wouldn't consider taking a personal risk to treat it. You did the right thing by calling a pro. They have know-how and materials to get the job done safely. It's hardly worth taking the chance, attacking the problem as an amateur could be life threatening.

Years ago in Minnesota, in our side yard there was a yellow jacket nest in the ground that I found while mowing. I noticed it before actually mowing over it, so it wasn't a problem. However we were having a party that coming weekend and the nest was right at one corner of where the volleyball court was going to go. I used an "eco-friendly" method someone told me about -- put a shop vac with its hose right at the opening, turn it on and leave it for a few hours. The next morning I came out and not only were the yellow jackets gone, something had dug up the remainder of the nest and munched all the larva.

Years ago we had one in our side yard. It was 3" deep. My hubby poured gas in the hole and burnt it. You have to be real careful.. Our daughter-in-law was trimming her shrubs when all of a sudden bees started swarming from the ground. She cut her trimmer cord in half!! Thank goodness she didn't get stung!!

Today I went to get metal flower box holders from our (detached) garage to take to the yard sale. One set of them had a paper bag attached. I moved the flower box holders and was about to hand them to my wife and felt a stinging sensation on my arm, at the same time she was stung on the neck. I dropped what I was holding and we both ran out of the garage.

Sure enough yellow jackets. I think the nest was in the paper bag which my sister "helpfully" hung there, containing seeds from past years basil plants. My arm still hurts and has a raised red patch about 1 1/2" by 2 1/2". I also see several yellow jackets per minute flying to that location and buzzing around seemingly trying to find the nest. Although there is a chance the nest is still in the garage somewhere near there . I'm not anxious to find out.

I had ground wasps several years ago. I called the Southern Ohio Bee Association and was told to pour gasoline down the hole - after the sun had gone down - but NOT to light it. Just put a rock over the opening and the gasoline will kill them. I opted to get some foam that you can spray from 20 feet away. It worked great. It sat in the opening for quite awhile and caught and killed the bees trying to get back into the next. I keep a can handy now. Like Bob, I had noticed the bees before I started mowing. I had heard horror stories of people being swarmed and stung badly when mowing over the nest. Yikes!!

The problem with pouring gasoline on them is that gasoline often contains MBTE which can travel through the soil and contaminate the nearby wells. It it detectable in drinking water in miniscule amounts.

I had a nest in a house I rented that was immediately adjacent to the back door, under the bottom piece of wood siding. I bought an off-brand of wasp spray from the hardware store, and sprayed it on the opening as the yellow jackets were flying in and out. It seemed to have no effect. I even sprayed it directly on some of them as they were leaving the nest. The force of the spray knocked them to the ground, but they got up and fly away. I even continued spraying one of them until it was in a puddle 3 inches across, it crawled to the edge of the puddle, shook off, and flew away. I then went back to the hardware store and demanded a refund.

I bought a major brand (perhaps dcon) and used that which worked better, actually killing the yellow jackets, but when I sprayed it on the opening of the nest, they merely stopped using that exit, and instead used the back exit, into the basement. Yay.

Good grief! I wrote previously that there is a ground nest that we have been dealing with all summer. Grandkids are visiting today and our luck ran out as far as no one getting stung by the bees in the ground nest. Just before dinner, the kids were horsing around near the ground nest. As I was warning them to stay clear, the hopping, running, and crying began. One sting for DGD and 3 for her DD. It could have been worse as there were 3 other children nearby. It was chaos here for a bit. Luckily, no one had an allergic reaction though DGD cried for a long time. Poor kid. Although my husband has treated the nest several times this summer by aiming the sprayer directly into the hole with Tri Star, the bees were not eliminated. This time he doused the entire area and "back door" also. It may be time for a professional.

I don't find the sprays available to the homeowner all that effective unless its an exposed nest, unlike what the pros can use, although I haven't had to call them in some years.

With my four ground nests, I went down and conferred with the 'pesticide guy' at our local garden and pet store. We decided on Sevin. Let me say first that I don't use Sevin in my garden because I know it's detrimental to bees, but I did buy some for this application. It seemed to be my most effective choice and least harmful to anything else (chipmunks, fawns, good bees since no flowers were close to attract them)

I went out after dark with about 1/4 C Sevin powder in a disposable cup, and poured it directly in the yellow jacket entrance. One was in ivy, (the only clump we left after hauling dumptruck loads out of here). One was in a brushy area on the hill dropping away from my shrub bed, and the third was in a rotting tie of a railroad tie retaining wall, so hopefully there was no reason for bees to come into contact with it, only the yellow jackets.

The hope was, the wasps would walk in and out in the powder and carry it deep inside the ground nests. They did. It took about 3 days before all were gone and no more sighted. On about the 4th day, I washed it deeper into the opening with a soft spray from my hose so nothing on the ground nearby would come into contact with it.

We haven't treated the 4th nest, I don't think its close enough to the house to be a concern and they should be gone in a few weeks. I have nothing against yellow jackets if they just aren't close to areas of activity, my guests.