I've learned a bit about yellowjackets in the past year or so and I'm going to be much more aggressive in the future. We (my GF really) has a 6 acre hay field. I hit 4 ground nests last fall mowing it, no stings, but ... bothersome. They were kinda rough around the house as well. This spring with COVID 'n' all we changed to working from home so I spent lots of days in the home office with the blinds open .. much nicer screen saver picture than the laptop. Anyway, as it started to warm a little I would see HUGE bees go by, looked like yellowjackets but almost twice the length. I realized those are queens that have hatched out and are looking for places to nest. I got some baited jacket traps and put them out. I caught / killed a couple dozen around the house and half that many around the hay field. Now the regular smaller ones are hatching out and I'm getting a few but nothing like the numbers we saw last year. Next year I'm putting those traps out around mid-late February. I may waste a little bait but every dead queen is a hive that never happens. If the hive doesn't happen, then they won't be swarming around the deck, hay field, etc being a menace any time we're outside.
I don't know what to do about hornets yet. I haven't seen them out scouting for nesting places, I only can attack the symptom rather than the source. I'm trying though, I am definitely trying.
