As many of you know I have devised my own method of wasp removal that works for hornets and yellow jackets, until today.

I had to set the vac aside and go old school on a multi-foundress yellow jacket nest today. It was unreal the sheer number of wasps pouring out of that hole in the ground. My first clue was carton material above ground covering a two by three foot ditch bank. By the time I got them knocked back enough to open her up I was in pain from multiple stings. Honeybees are mild irritation to me but yellow jackets freaking hurt and I'm still hurting. The nest, comb and brood alone filled a contractor sized bag and weighs somewhere north of thirty pounds. I counted four foundresses that I saw with the possibility of many others that could have been in the debris. The cavity was a full arms depth deep and wide.

NO Friggin way Brotha !!! Insane.

doooooooooop!! betcha use bactine to get them boo boo's away!!! man...warrior!!!

I got nailed by bald face on my fore head last week that hurt pretty good, I can't even think of what a bunch of yellow jacket hits was feeling like

Yellow jackets is the reason I stopped offering pesticide free wasp removal. I was removing a bald face hornet nest with the vac, and set off a massive colony of yellow jackets, took a bunch of stings with a bee suit on. Now one sting and I blow up like a balloon. I have not tested if I still blow up this year, but bat season is starting soon.... Seems every job I quoted that is loaded with wasps I have gotten the job, come August they will be real fun:)

The last time I got stung by yellow jackets I fell two stories and landed on my head. I can honestly say that I do not remember those stings hurting at all. Of course, I don't remember the ambulance ride to the hospital either.

Paul, can the wct cartoon artist scetch that one up?

This is why i asked about yellow jackets and bats..when i ecounter YJ 's i enter a panic mode..ladders ,roof tops , vehicles...there all on a level plane ..I just run, jump whatever ...this is going to get me a ride in an ambulance too ...If i'm lucky

Guys, this one was absolutely mind blowing. As a rule the yellow jacket nests I see are single foundress nests and typically the size of a softball with the largest of them running to basketball size by the end of the season. This one as I said had multiple foundresses and it was amazing to consider that with multiples laying eggs just how large a nest can grow, it's on the exponential scale and definitely not linear.
The only thing I can compare it to is the honeybees I fool with. This nest was larger than even my best hive of bees and I can see that with multiple layers that it had the potential to grow to a completely massive size. Unlike my honeybees there are no ways to pacify or calm them with smoke and the aggressive nature of yellow jackets makes a nest of this size extremly dangerous.
The reason this one had to go was it was on a ditch bank at a church that will be having vacation bible school this week and the risk to the children was to great. That nest of yellow jackets could have killed someone.

Good job Dave !!!

I killed a nest about the size of a basketball last year my dad got stung 7 times by yellow jackets

Wow...When David McLeod speaks of a wasp job like that, it is mind-blowing.
What's a foundress? Cool word from Middle English, no doubt.

Wasp equivalent to a Queen Bee. Most colonial wasps like colonial bees will only have a single fertile laying female but occasionally as in this case there can be mutiple laying females in a single colony. Basically in a single layer colony the population is limited by the numbers of eggs she can lay per day offset by daily mortality of the adult workers. The colony is also somewhat restricted by the tasking of the workers as well with some unable to forage in the field due the nest maintenance activities. with a multi foundress colony more workers being hatched frees up quite a number for field foraging which means more protein entering the colony which further ramps up production. As I said the increase is exponential.

You know whats cool about doing any of this work ...is the fact that many of us have our own specialized field .....my problem is i can do it...but dont ask me to explain it ..

Ice water will drop them quick as any chemical. It's not a "pesticide" so no worry on licenses. Put it in a 1 gallon sprayer and try it.