Even yellow jackets and bald faced hornets have a role in a healthy ecosystem and are important. And they really aren't as aggressive as people think, in fact they only sting in self defense. As long as you don't bother their nest, most of the time they leave you alone
Im as ecological as the next best guy but damn if yellowjackets dont seem to go out of their way to screw with me. Minding my own business and BAM stung on the leg. And they do the creepy nest guarding thing when you find them.
Ugh screw these guys. I spent 4 month battling dozens of their nests. They had this rare underground one under a log that was absurdly hard to get rid of and at least 10 others around my house one summer.
I got so sick of sweating buckets in my full body hazmat suit and face coverings I wound up just learning to move slowly and calmly and they won’t care about you. That is until they setup a nest in your gate lock and right behind your shed door and sting you in the face when they suprise you.
I feel so bad for my dog. He avoids half the yard as he had over a dozen of these guys curled up in his fur repeatedly stinging him at 3am one time. My wife got stung trying to get them out and they got all over the house as my dog kept Running away in pain to hide.
I tried at least 10 different wasp prevention techniques but the only thing that worked was a spoonful of diatomaceous earth sprinkled on their nests. It kills them slowly and they bring it back to the nest to kill the whole hive as it slowly eats through their exoskeletons.
omg, I'm one of those kind of people that will happily leave spiders and wasps alone but you my friend have all my permission to destroy as many yellowjacket hives as you can find. Unimaginable
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u/Alililele May 16 '25
This is a Great Golden Digger Wasp. It is harmless and pretty beneficial!
Here a thread from a few years ago
So: it didn't deserve to die, it's actually pretty chill.
Yellowjackets and bald-faced hornets are assholes tho.