Yellow jacket nest in garden AGH - now what?

Was clearing out an overgrown area near the side of the garage - some cinderblocks there from where someone had a raised garden. I want to level out the area, put in a small tree and add some grass. Moved a cinderblock a couple of inches off the block below it and heard buzzing, saw yellow and RAN! From a safe distance noticed lots of very angry yellow jackets. Have noticed yellow jackets in the yard & bees don't make their hives underground. So, if I call Jerry Buckingham, he comes out, sprays them into calm & then what? If they're in a place you can fill-in they won't come back, but how do you get rid of the nest/larvae/queen without getting stung? Getting close to fall, I have 2 young kids who love their backyard, and I want to clean out that area. Any experience? How do you get rid of them for good??

Flamethrower.

Ha - nest is adjacent to a 2-story, 100+ year old wood garage/barn. Wouldn't end well for the neighborhood.

But seriously, I've used this on a yellowjacket nest I found with good results. Once it's done, you can do whatever work you need, they probably won't come back as yellowjackets tend to nest in one place only for that summer.

Forgot to add linkie.

http://www.raidkillsbugs.com/en-us/products/raid-wasp-and-hornet-killer-33

Further edit: I am deathly afraid of things which fly and also happen to be yellow and black, no matter what the size. This thing gave me the distance I needed to be comfortable actually tackling this myself without calling in Jerry Buckingham.

Augghghghghghgghghgh!!!! I'm also deathly afraid of the little yellow bastards, and I got stung just a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, there is a nest in the planting bed off the front porch at our old house, and I was painting the porch and railings when they got annoyed somehow. So I might try your Raid product, Ridski.

An exterminator will be able to kill the insects in their nest. Don't mess with them yourself. You could get hurt.

I've had Jerry Buckingham to deal with ground nests of yellow jackets as well as hanging nests. He takes care of the situation and they don't come back. With one nest, he wouldn't bill us until he came back a few times and made sure that there were no stragglers hanging around and that the nest was truly done for.

Love most insects, can co-exist with most bees, am terrified of wasps and hornets and yellow jackets, so we've used Jerry's services a lot over the years.

Aren't ground wasps and yellow jackets different? I think ground wasps are of a less vivid yellow color. But what do I know.

We had ground wasps. I sprayed poison into the nest at dusk. It seemed to reduce their numbers but didn't eliminate them. I eventually decided to live with them. Their sting doesn't seem that bad to me. It hurts a lot for the first 30 seconds, as if someone is jabbing me hard with a needle. Then for the next three hours, it's annoying. But I can definitely survive it. I've gotten a few stings from them.

But if you have kids or animals, I understand your wish to protect them.

First, this is an easy fix so be of good cheer.

Second, respectfully to the views of other posters, they gotta go.

Yellow jackets are social wasps, different from paper wasps. They're of the same family as bald faced hornets. Whereas paper wasps can indeed lay down a hurting on you, generally they are mellow. Not so with social wasps. And there are likely a thousand of them or so down there at this part of the season and likely to get worse. They are way too aggressive to leave on property where people or animals are likely to be.

While their cousins, the bald faced hornets, make nests way up in trees generally, out of the way of people's comings and goings, yellow jackets nest in the ground or in stumps or voids like you describe- part of their nest is in the block, the rest will extend underground.

Wasp spray is more for solo combat. Fine for the odd paper wasp nest, woefully inadequate for a cast of thousands.

So call Jerry. He will put some delta dust at the entrance (can you believe the bastards post sentries in their entrance tunnels? Like I said leave this to professionals unless you know what you're doing). They will get it on their bodies and bring it to all corners of the nest. In a few days, game over. And as Ridski pointed out, they don't reuse nests, so you can pretty much forget about it after that.

Your instinct regarding keeping the kids out is on point. It can be ugly if they agitate the nest.

I had yellow jackets making a nest in the back of my house. I tried to DYI, but it didn't work. Jerry came out and in one application (of whatever) they were gone. I feel no compunction to murdering the little f***ers.

Go Ripley on them.

We had a nest buried in the backyard. I blasted them with Raid and it seemed to reduce the population but they were still alive down there. Buckingham had to come by twice to finish the job, price was very reasonable.

But be warned - after he does his thing they get even more angry so make sure that you can avoid that part of the yard for close to a week.

Thanks all for the really helpful words. Jerry it is. Such a misnomer, 'social wasps,' I had not heard that classification breakdown before, so interesting but nothing social about the nasty aggression of yellow jackets in the fall.

We had yellow jackets nesting in cracks on a retaining wall by our driveway. I was stung on the ankle and it was very painful and swollen. Called Jerry who returned several times. Still some yellow jackets but not as many. Don't mess around with these guys.

Nice discussion from a U of Washington Entomologist regarding DIY wasp nest "management":

http://courses.washington.edu/insects/454Students/Resources/WASPS.htm

From the short article: "DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EXTERMINATE WASPS without forethought, protection, and supervision."

marylago said:
I had yellow jackets making a nest in the back of my house. I tried to DYI, but it didn't work. Jerry came out and in one application (of whatever) they were gone. I feel no compunction to murdering the little f***ers.

Hillarious!

This is worth a watch. A brave man. A brave, stupid man with one big idea. Stick with it until he goes totalCol. Kurtz in his garage.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ6k_px1Hu0

I watched quite a few disturbing YouTube vids when our wasps were active. The most reasonable was the guy who waited until night, then carefully put a piece of screen (held in place with rocks) over the wasp hole. Then he pumped it full of Joy (dish soap) and let the hose run.

Jackson_Fusion said:
This is worth a watch. A brave man. A brave, stupid man with one big idea. Stick with it until he goes totalCol. Kurtz in his garage.


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ6k_px1Hu0

WOW!!!

GGartrell said:

Jackson_Fusion said:
This is worth a watch. A brave man. A brave, stupid man with one big idea. Stick with it until he goes totalCol. Kurtz in his garage.


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ6k_px1Hu0

WOW!!!

That is just too much!

OK, I relent. You should exterminate the nest.

They do serve an environmental purpose. They're not just azzholes. But yes, they're too dangerous to let live in your yard. Looking back about how we tolerated them, I think we were crazy. Our cat named Booger -- who earned his name every day -- used to go to one of the nests and eat the wasps!

Booger was a VERY unusual beast, Tom.

Jackson_Fusion said:
This is worth a watch. A brave man. A brave, stupid man with one big idea. Stick with it until he goes totalCol. Kurtz in his garage.


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ6k_px1Hu0

Oh. My. God...

Holy crap. Would he come to my old house and kill the wasps and yellow jackets there? Can I watch from a safe distance? IS there a safe distance?

We have two very healthy honeybee hives in our yard, and found yellow jackets nesting in some void between our cedar shakes and our attic - no sign of them in the attic. Hurray for Jerry, who came to treat them (at significant risk to himself, since the buggers had chose to nest right above a basement staircase!). They are gone and my hives continue to thrive. LOVE JERRY BUCKINGHAM! He is a responsible, ethical and careful exterminator.

AND, he comes to me in West Orange, which I know isn't his normal gig.