I recently discovered a large paper nest in a tree in my front yard, probably about the size of 1.5/ 2 basketballs. It was very surprising to me because it seemingly was in plain sight (not a deciduous tree so no changes to the foliage) all summer and nobody ever noticed it, and I am frequently mowing right under this tree, which could have disturbed the nest. This lead me to believe that the nest likely had been abandoned for some time.

However, upon removal the nest still had a number of living larvae. Not a huge amount, but I counted about a dozen that were still moving inside their combs, alongside far more dead and blackened larvae. There were also no workers in the nest, or signs of them flying around over the past few days since I discovered it.

So maybe this nest was recently abandoned? Anyone know how long larvae can survive without food?

Not if this is the right place to raise this issue, but a few days ago I saw a wasp inside the basement, I think it entered by accident when I opened the door, maybe it came from a honeycomb I have outside my house.

The thing is that it is inside, I thought she had died since I had not seen it again, but today I saw it again.

Should I worry? What should I do? I'm too nervous.

It has a longer torso and a harier head than the all the other wasps i have seen.

I live in central europe.

Over the summer I bought five golf carts that were in disrepair in front of a garage in some old Indiana Ghost Town near the White River. Well my buddy's mom and I are pulling these out cuz she was a co-investor and I start yelling at her hey there's a bald-faced hornet nest on that garage and she just doesn't give a s*** keeps walking around in front of this massive nest doesn't get stung but I can see four or five of them up there watching her and there's other ones buzzing all around us not really bothering us, well I'm wrapping a chain around the axle of one cuz they're in tall Weeds and I noticed some activity on the nest and I look and they're all rushing inside of it a few of them were around me I didn't even notice took up off the ground and went back inside the hive... I didn't think much of it but a minute or two later I hear this low buzzing sound and incomes this giant fluorescent red I guess I don't know what it was it looked like a wasp sort of but it was long and much bigger than a bald-faced hornet and it flew very slowly and landed on the golf cart in front of the one I was attempting to pull out I'm peeking over the top of it and all those hornets are inside that nest and as soon as that weird ass looking thing got up and flew away they all come back out and we're doing their normal thing again I mean what I wish I could have got a picture but I was kind of horrified. If they run from that I don't want no part of that. Does anybody have any idea what this might have been?

Okay, so all spring into summer and into early fall i had not seen one of these yellowjackets in my house or even around my house outside(I live in the northeast in the upstate NY area) and in the past 2 weeks I have probably seen a good 15-20 of them in my house, with a majority of them being in this one walk in closet by a window near my attic. I have nailed a blanket over the closet walk in way as I'm allergic and im not going to try and spray all of them, and with it being late October I know they have a week or two at most, I'm just wondering is it possible to have a nest in your home some where and not realize it until late fall? I just dont understand how so many have been able to get in home.

I'm in Virginia, near the West Virginia line and just had an encounter with ground nesting yellow jackets. Ran over them with the mower twice before I realized what was happening. They hit me pretty hard, but I'm not allergic, so I'm sore and swollen up, taking benadryl, but otherwise fine.

In the meantime, I've been investigating the nest as close as I can get without triggering a defensive reaction.

We live in the woods and I really don't like killing pollinating insects in general. We moved into the woods. They live here.

But, this one is close to areas where my children and pets frequent and one of my dogs is allergic.

The nest appears to have more than one intrance, two different holes that are in relatively close proximity.

I don't know much about yellow jackets, other than the fact they can get pretty aggressive when threatened. When I ran over it yesterday, I was surprised because there were multiple larger wasps with more pronounced colors coming out of one of the holes, along with a pretty ferocious army of smaller ones intent to eliminate me. Edit: almost like there are multiple queens, but I don't know enough about their lifecycle to say that.

Most of the time, I just leave nests alone and let nature run it's course, but the location of these is concerning. I don't want someone to get hurt.

I just filled a bucket with soapy water and poured it down one of the holes as best I could without getting right on top of them. At first there was very little reaction, but shortly afterward, they started swarming (almost like it made them angry more than anything else).

Any recommendations from folks on the best approach here?

I live in rural Rhode Island and just noticed this monster outside my second floor window. Its starting to get cooler here and im not sure if I should remove this or wait for cold weather? They’re swarming around the house like crazy

Obviously we’re all wasp fans here but I’m curious abt mainly how the western ppl here feel abt them being how much of a threat they are to other bees and wasps. I really can’t stand them which is a shame bc of how cool they look

J wanted to say thank you for all the ppl re-educating me in the comments. Rlly goes to show how bad the wasp fearmongering is in the media bc everything made it seem like they were a much more widespread problem in the states!

It keeps threatening to stab me because it's young are all grown up and it's not getting anymore nectar.

I’ve got some neighbors that moved in a few months ago. I live in south GA and am wondering if they’ll leave when winter eventually makes it here. So far, they’ve been nice and we have an uneasy truce, but I think when they put their wings out it’s time for me to back away a little. Can anyone identify them?

Found them on the side of my house yesterday and was wondering why. There’s no nest anywhere near them. Why would they group up like this