Killer Yellow Jackets

Last night I noticed what I thought at the time were bees buzzing into two holes in the ground at the front of our yard. These looked to be nesting holes. Since we moved here I noticed lots of half dollar sized holes in the yard, but no creatures were ever going into or out of them. My idea was that these holes belonged to the larger-than-I-like spiders that frequent these parts. After seeing the "bees" I decided that something should be done about them, so I looked on the internet for a solution. Most people said to pour gasoline down the holes. I didn't really want to do that, but there was another good idea posted: cover the holes with a tarp and leave it there for a few days. That seemed about as un-invasive as ideas involving flying, stinging insects come.

Well fast-forward to this morning. I open the front door to leave and notice a few "bees" between the screen door and the front door. I decided to go out the back door and come around the front to see what was going on. I found a bunch of yellow-jackets (they aren't bees) crowding around the address letters on the front of the house, right under the porch light. They were trying to keep warm. I also noticed that there was at least one new hole dug in the yard, and one of the holes I saw last night had greatly increased in size. Now I knew it was getting a bit out of control. I decided to stay home and call the pest control guy, because I didn't want to mess with that many yellow-jackets myself. The pest control guy couldn't be here until 12ish so I went into work. He dispatched the yellow-jackets without issue. Apparently he donned one of those bee-keeper suits and sprayed powder into the holes where they nest. The dust gets on the yellow-jackets and the insects then ingest it when they clean themselves, and that is what kills them.

Apparently yellow-jackets are pretty aggressive, so I did not want them hanging around for long. Now that I know how to take care of them, I may just have to do it myself next time. I will have to buy one of those cool white stinging insect proof suits first, though.