Thanks for the recent article on yellowjacket wasps. It was interesting and informative. However, the suggested remedy, pesticide, doesn`t always work. I once sprayed a whole can of bee and wasp poison into a yellow jacket nest in the ground. The colony survived. I poured a can of gasoline into the hole and fired it up. It didn`t work.
As I recall, my dad was the one who thought to try a vacuum cleaner. We set the hose next to the opening, ran an extension cord to the house, and plugged it in. Whenever a yellow jacket tried to leave or enter the nest, it was sucked into the hose. We let it run all day and wiped out the remnants of the colony.
The next summer, we found another nest. We dispensed with the chemicals and pyrotechnics, and went straight to the vacuum cleaner. The wasps were so dazed, we were able to dump them in a trash bag and seal it. Problem solved.
