drippy: What is the size of the nest, now, by the way? When you say it's smooth and looks like it was thrown on a potter's wheel--that's usually the way the BEGINNING of a Hornets' nest looks (its interior). It starts out small and smooth, and later, in its finished stage, it's much larger and rougher looking, like corrugated cardborad, or paper mache (its exterior). If it's small, I wouldn't allow it to get large and full of hornets--I'd deal with it now. If you wait 'til cold weather, as you mentioned, the sucker may be big as a breadbox and have many hundreds of Hornets in it. If it's small (smaller than a softball), I'd take a propane torch (as high as the flame will go) to it. If you don't want to get THAT close, wire a gasoline soaked rag to the end of a pole (you determine the length you're comfortable with), light it and hold it under the nest from a distance. Hornets can't do much flying when you've singed their wings off (of course, if there's the slightest danger of starting a fire in your shed, forget these suggestions). When I was a child, I was constantly messing with Hornets' nests, in the summer, and got stung a bunch. As mentioned above, they're VERY defensive of their nests. We used to throw rocks at their nest, and I swear, Hornets have the uncanny knack of following the path that the rock was thrown right back to the THROWER--not just one, but many, and sting the hail out of you. And they always seem to aim for the highest part of your body--your head and face. Hornets used to build a huge nest in one particular Apple tree, year after year, which was on a sloping path to our barn. I'd get a stick, and pedal my bike as fast as I could down the slope, swat it with the stick (drop the stick), and pedal as fast as I could to get away. The Hornets would ALWAYS catch up to me and sting me about the back of the head and neck as I was fleeing. They'll follow you QUITE a ways, also--up to a quarter of a mile, many times. I'd come to the house, crying, from the stings, and my father used to say, "Boy, if you keep messing with those Hornets, they're gonna be the death of you".

I agree. Working outside as a vocation around flowers and trees, I have developed an allergy to them over the years after repeated stings. I don't panic about it, but a healthy respect for them is appropriate. I have had to make two ER trips, one in the back of an ambulance after a sting. That being said, I have a huge and lovely bee colony perhaps twenty yards from my house........very docile honeybees. Never been stung. But have been stung by wasps and it's possible that there is a ground colony of something like Yellow Jackets in or around that bush. If that is the case, a professional on insect control might be suggested to identify the insect and if there is a colony of something like yellow jackets with potential aggression issues in defending a colony, it may be necessary. Is the poster sure they AREN'T honeybees just swarming? Mine have put out three swarms the last month. If that is the case, bee keepers would be thrilled to come harvest them for nothing. Before mine balled up to travel, they were flying crazily around two trees for a day or two.

After reading everyone's stories here, I thought my own yellow jacket experience worth sharing. I'd read all the bad things that comes from pouring gas or kerosene into the ground, but after several attacks by our little ground-dwelling monsters, I decided to resort to this particular form of chemical warfare. As the nest I was trying to eradicate was located in a slight depression in the middle of my backyard, it was situated perfectly for "pouring". But then... as a small creek borders my yard, I couldn't help keep away thoughts of benzene-disfigured frogs showing up at my doorstep some rainy night in the future. So... feeling guilty and in desperation, I had a vision... of the hot water heater. I'd heard about the boiling-water-down-the-hole solution, but the stove is a very long way from my backyard. But not the basement door, which is a straight shot of some thirty feet from the nest, and the hot water heater, about ten feet inside the basement door. SO... During a sunny late afternoon, with the little buggers zipping in and out, I carefully made mental note of the nest's entrance. Then, I rigged a ten foot pole (a couple of sturdy branches taped together with too sticky masking tape, the kind you'll never use again but can't throw away), taped the female end of a long garden hose to just inches over the end of the pole, then taped the rest of the hose securely to the pole. Then, I sat on the ground and slooowly crept the pole/hose combo along the grass towards the nestÂs entrance, careful to take many rests along the way, giving time for the little critters to adjust to the newby in the neighborhood. Once the end of the hose was just slightly off center above the hole (so as to not block the all-important flight path), I retreated back into the house to wait until the night. That evening, around nine, I went back to the hole; no guards were in sight, but I didn't lean too far over in case one of them got energetic to attack. I made a mental note of the hose's location, and VERY SLOWLY pulled it away from the hose and away from the depression. I went into the basement, connected the hose to the flush-out valve on the hot water heater, and turned on the water to get the hose heated up for the ultimate event. After a couple of minutes, I shut off the water, and went back to my pole and carefully pushed it back into its original position. I even cheated and used a flashlight to verify that I was in the correct position. And then I turned the water back on and essentially drained the hot water heater until the brass coupling on the hose was only warm. I expected some buzzing at the back door, but nothing happened. I figured I'd failed, but the next afternoon, upon checking out the nest, was amazed to discover that nary a bee buzzed in and out of the ground. Success! Now, if I can only figure out a way to get that masking tape off of the hoseÂ

I just noticed a very large hornets next in a tree in my front yard. I do have all kinds of bees and wasps because of all of my flowers, and I just dead head and go about my business trying not to disturb them. It did cross my mind that I thought some of the "bees" were hornets, and I kept meaning to research them and identify them, but I just hadn't gotten around to it yet. Then all of a sudden discovering the nest has made me very nervous. It's about 15 feet above the ground and truly huge. About the size of two basketballs. There is a huge hole in front and a lot of activity. I won't be working out front until I deal with this! It is mind boggling how I've been out there almost every day doing this or that and never noticed the nest. I guess I spend two much time looking down and not enough looking up!