Yellow jackets and hornets are very aggressive, especially in the fall when they know they are going to die soon.
Some of the best advice we've gotten is to leave your other wasps alone. The big black ones, the ones with the baroque waistlines, solitary wasps -- many of these are predators that eat a lot of yellowjackets! While they do have a troublesome sting, they are not normally aggressive. So unless a nest is in a really bad place, leave them be. They'll help keep the yellowjackets and hornets under control.
I put out several hornet traps in early summer, and keep them full of a nasty fruit juice and canned catfood concoction. You want to start catching the yellowjackets before they increase their population.
I am deathly allergic to stinging insects (have the honor of being a "cross-reactor" so theoretically anything that stings me can kill me), and I live on a farm with a numerous and diverse insect population. We couldn't "eradicate" them if we wanted to. So we hedge the odds by being at peace with the wasps that prey on the troublesome hornets.
Some of the best advice we've gotten is to leave your other wasps alone. The big black ones, the ones with the baroque waistlines, solitary wasps -- many of these are predators that eat a lot of yellowjackets! While they do have a troublesome sting, they are not normally aggressive. So unless a nest is in a really bad place, leave them be. They'll help keep the yellowjackets and hornets under control.
I put out several hornet traps in early summer, and keep them full of a nasty fruit juice and canned catfood concoction. You want to start catching the yellowjackets before they increase their population.
I am deathly allergic to stinging insects (have the honor of being a "cross-reactor" so theoretically anything that stings me can kill me), and I live on a farm with a numerous and diverse insect population. We couldn't "eradicate" them if we wanted to. So we hedge the odds by being at peace with the wasps that prey on the troublesome hornets.
