I called in a hired gun. He's out there now singing some kind of "die little stinger die!" song. :D

Good.

Wasps don't play...a snake has an range of about 6 feet, depending on the snake, to do me harm: Wasps, the term is meant to be multiple because they are in a gang, MS-W, and have a sting range based on the closest can of spray or water I can jump into.

I have stories.

One of the few times in my life I have ever panicked was when I chain sawed through a Wasp nest when we first moved here, over 30 years ago.

I was clearing brush from around a (quaint alert) telephone pole: It went high order very quickly...the chain saw was still turning as I dropped it and ran to the tobacco pond, 150 feet away and slimmed myself.

Wasps are airborne IED's.

Hoo Wee this was a big nest. We counted nearly two dozen queens as they crawled out with the drones. He dusted some kind of powder into a crack and Blammo it looked like the morning after at Animal House. The kid really knows his business.

^^^ Probably Sevin Dust.
I have a small pump duster with a tube on the end that I load with 5% Sevin and it comes out as a thick cloud. Kills them quickly.

Hey, does anybody know if this will work with yellow hackets? I was recently up on the bank in back of my house trimming around some rosemary bushes. I apparently disturbed a nest of yellow jackets, because some camer out at me and started stinging and followed me onto the patio and a couple followed into the house. I'm assuming the nest is in hibernation, so any poisoning won't work until later on. I got stung about a dozen times and can't get to the nest since it's somewhere in the ground under the bush, so I'm assuming I'll have to wait until spring or sometime.

I've tried several of such home made traps. None have ever worked. Besides traps do not wipe out the nest.

If the insects eat fruit juice, this does indeed kill the entire nest. They feed on it and take it home to feet the queen and larva. You want to create a food source that wasps and yellow jackets can get to but humming birds/pets cannot. Honey bees don't appreciate apple juice and prefer flower nectar so they are not attracted to it.

This is a variation on Terro boric acid bait that is also highly effective for controlling Argentine and pavement ants.
https://www.amazon.com/TERRO-T200-3SR-Liquid-Ant-Killer/dp/B0B3SH4MQT/ref=asc_df_B0B3SH4MQT?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80539356896614&hvnetw=o&hvq mt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=106581&hv targid=pla-4584138878360228&th=1

Thanks, I'll give it a try during the next season, when they come out. I'll want to keep an eye on the bees, since I don't want them to get poisoned.

I've tried wasp traps before, baiting them with both a sweet liquid and raw meat, as they apparently feed on different things during different parts of the year. Never had any luck catching the ones that annoyed me.

Yellow jackets are just flying spiders.

At my old bachelor pad house, I came home one day and the entire easement behind my house had a new trench for over 1/2 a mile, except for about three feet in my back yard. So a long trench, except one small area.

The next morning at 6:00 AM one of the crew was banging on my front door. He started with "You have ground bumble bees in you back yard", and we plan to spray them diesel to kill them. I said no effing way, I have two very nice pecan trees back there. Give me a few minutes, and I will take care of them. I mixed up a triple strength dose of Malathion, and used a hose sprayer rig to squirt the area from several feet away. They would exit the ground and go about 12 inches and fall dead. I hosed down the area until the malathion was used up.

That afternoon, I came back and I had a new sewer and water pipe, (in separate pipes) laid. It was long overdue as the neighborhood was started in 1949.

Those bumble bees were not super aggressive as long as you did not bother their nest. Then they were mean.

I’ve tried dynamiting ground nests in the past, with a distinct lack of success.

Hard to imagine, but it happened.