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I have had some success with the yellow traps. The kind I use have a liquid attractant and also reccommend putting some turkey ham or similar in them. Mine usually get about 2/3 full. I try to get them in operation early in the Spring to get as many of the Queen wasps before they get a chance to lay eggs. I also have had some success with plastic milk jugs half filled with water and fruit juice with a little dishwashing detergent. The wasps get desperate for water in our semi-desert climate in August and September and crawl into the jugs, land on the liquid and drown. I have had jugs nearly packed with dead wasps. There are actually several different kinds of yellow jacket wasps. We have the kinds that build comb-like nests on the rafters of buildings. I control these fairly well by taking down the nests in cold weather and burning them. If the wasps are active, I use the long range spray insecticide. The other kind builds paper nests on fences or in bushes. If I find such a nest when the wasps are active, I have shot the nests with my shotgun using birdshot and then get inside a vehicle Fast! I have had paper nests as big as a basketball on my property. I have never found a nest in the ground, but maybe they are there too. When they are flying around or from the distances I prefer to observe them from, they all look about the same to me. The wasps don't bother much except in late summer and early fall. Then they are very aggressive and will try to get on any food outside and I have had them land on my skin and take a bite out without stinging me. My wife is highly allergic to stings, so I try to get rid of as many wasps as I can. She also has emergency adrenaline shot kits in the house and the vehicles she uses. I know the wasps have a useful place in the ecosystem. But just like anything else, if there get to be too many of them, they become pests and have to be dealt with somehow.
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