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["Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

My experience controlling yellow jackets is always after they become a nuisance and traps have worked well for me but they are hard work when you have to maintain 30 or more traps on a property and even the frozen apple juice expense starts to mount.  I have never had any success in capturing queens early in the season- they seem to avoid the traps no matter what the directions may say.

 

On a property like mine there is no way to locate all the nests or even a significant amount- they can be in the ground, in the trees, on structures and they can be large or small.  When I see a nest I don't even worry about stings, I just get out the extendable pole of my pole-saw, fully extend it and attack the nest from a safe distance, prepared to run if I have to.  I only get stung when I disturb the nests I don't see.