Run! Bees! No....Wasps! Run faster!!!

Being an entomologist, I find most insects fascinating (I even think cockroaches are interesting), but the other day I had a run in with a not so fascinating set of insects.  I was doing some yard work and all of a sudden I got a very strong sense that I was under attack.  At first it felt as if I had placed my leg against a blow torch, followed very quickly with the same feeling on my hand.  This was enough to let me know to get out of where I was.  After heading to the house (OK, running for my life to the house) I placed ice on the affected areas, yelled a bit, then went looking for the source of my pain.  Turns out that I had waked into some ground nesting hymenoptera!

The hole (center) where the yellow jacket nest was located (about the size of a cantaloupe).

 At first I thought they were bees based on their size, but as I didn't see any stingers in my body my suspicion turned to wasps.  On closer (cautious) inspection, I determined these were yellow jackets (Vespula squamosa, the southern yellowjacket to be exact).  This species is common in the south and the majority construct hives underground. A fascinating fact is that they often usurp the nest of other species.

A worker V. squamosa (Biological Survey of Canada)

Normally I would leave well enough alone, but given how close the nest was to our outdoor living areas and that I have small children I knew the nest had to go. After first treating the nest with some "Wasp and Hornet" spray, it became obvious that stronger tactics were called for.  After some research, I determine a less toxic (and potentially more effective) approach was boiling water and oil.  However medieval this sounded, this actually makes a lot of sense.  First, the boiling water kills insects on contact, and second any that don't get hit can become coated in oil (in this case vegetable oil) which makes it difficult for them to fly (so they starve from lack of an ability to hunt).  After a couple of bucket fulls (at night as these guys don't fly after dark) I was able to eradicate the colony. 

I've since dug up the nest and pulled out quite a lot of the cells, which were all packed with larvae.  Had I not spotted the nest when I did (or blundered into it) it would likely have held many hundred adults by fall.  As it stood I would estimate there were several hundred already.

Some of the cells (white-ish ones are full of larvae) of the underground yellow jacket nest.