It’s important to distinguish between different species of ground wasps because while the cicada-killing wasps are harmless, yellowjackets are not. Yellowjackets become highly aggressive if threatened. They can also sting multiple times and attack in large groups.
A few years ago when working on a fence I was putting in a fence post near a yellowjacket's hole to their nest. I got stung a few times and had to get poison to spray in their hole to get rid of them so I could dig and put in my new fence post. Now a few days ago I was stung three times in my left hand. I was going through/moving some railroad ties in my stack to find the right tie for my backyard fencing project. Apparently the yellowjacket wasps created a nest somewhere in the stack of railroad ties. Their stings ended my railroad tie search as I had to run away from the stack of railroad ties and the yellowjackets that were starting to swarm and come after me. The stings happened around 9 am and my hand hurt like heck until around 9 pm. The next morning most all of the sting had disappeared.
Donna had an extra can of wasp spray. I planned to use it before I tried again to find the correct railroad tie. However a few days ago our hot weather left. Mornings are cool and the days high temperature is much lower. Today we were 12 degrees colder than our normal high temperature. Colder temperatures slow the yellowjackets down. One morning a few days ago I took a chance and was able to take the correct railroad tie off the top of the stack and not get stung as the yellowjacket wasps were not flying.
Also a few days ago I noticed the typical wasps going into holes in the side of a metal box I have. These wasps don't attack, or if they sting, don't really hurt. I was able to open the box and after a day many of them were gone and I was able to remove their nests from inside the box.
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