Wasps/Hornets
Dolichovespula maculatais a North American insect which, despite commonly being called the bald-faced hornet (or white-faced hornet), is not a true hornet at all. It belongs to a genus of wasps called yellowjackets in North America, and is more distantly related to true hornets like the Asian giant hornet or European hornet, but the term "hornet" is often used colloquially to refer to any wasp with an exposed aerial nest.
The bald-faced hornet lives throughout North America, including southern Canada, the Rocky Mountains, the western coast of the United States, and most of the eastern US. They are most common in the southeastern United States. They are best known for their large football-shaped paper nest, which they build in the spring for raising their young. These nests can sometimes reach 3 feet tall. Bald-faced hornets are extremely protective of their nests and will sting repeatedly if disturbed. The main area of the body that bald faced hornets attack on humans is the facial area.
Every year young queens that were born and fertilized the previous year start a new colony and raise their young. The workers expand the nest by chewing up wood that mixes with a starch in their saliva, which they spread with their mandibles and legs to dry into paper. The workers also guard the nest and collect nectar and arthropods to feed the larvae. This continues through summer and into fall. As winter approaches, the wasps die, except for young fertilized queens which hibernate underground or in hollow trees. The nest is generally abandoned by winter, and will most likely not be reused. When spring arrives the young queens emerge, and the cycle begins again.
Bald-faced hornets visit flowers, especially in late summer, and can be minor pollinators.
Like other social wasps, bald-faced hornets have a caste system made up of the following:
1. Queens — fertile females which begin the colonies and lay eggs.
2. Workers — infertile females which do the manual labor.
3. Drones — males, which have no stingers, and are born from unfertilized eggs.
Yellowjackets
SIZE: 5/8 to 1 inch (14-25.4mm)
COLOR: Black and yellow or black and white
DESCRIPTION: Yellowjackets are wasps with a definite waist. They fold their wings lengthwise when at rest. Like all wasps, yellowjackets prey on a wide variety of insects and other arthropods. Yellowjackets are unusual in that workers also forage on foods consumed by people, especially sweets and meats.
HABITAT: Yellowjacket wasps are often pests in recreational areas in Virginia from late summer until early autumn.
LIFE CYCLE: In the fall, wasp colonies have attained their largest size, and in the vicinity of numerous colonies, foraging workers may become serious pests as they search for food-usually food that is eaten or discarded by people.
TYPE OF DAMAGE: If a colony is disturbed, worker yellowjackets will aggressively defend their colony by stinging. May create a nuisance and life-threatening stinging episodes. For most of us a sting may be just a temporary painful experience, but for allergic individuals a single sting may result in a serious reaction.
CONTROL: Management of yellowjacket foragers: destruction of all yellow-jackets in and around a recreational area is advised to reduce the possibility of a dangerous sting. Nests should be located during the day when the workers are going and coming on a regular basis; the location of the nest should be marked. Return late at night to treat the nest with a liquid insecticide. The destruction of individual colonies may not eliminate all the yellowjacket workers from an area in which food is available. This is because yellowjackets are capable of flying a mile from their colonies in search of food.
Effective management of yellowjackets can be achieved by: (1) rigorous sanitation, and (2) use of physical exclusion from a food source. The principle behind these practices is the denial of attractive food to the foraging worker wasps. If begun early in the summer and carried out through mid-autumn, proper sanitation will help to reduce the buildup of foraging yellow-jackets in an area. Trash containers should be kept closed (lid) whenever possible; open containers should be emptied regularly (every few hours when a large number of foragers are present). Use an aerosol insecticide to remove yellowjackets present around trash cans in order to empty them. Place a 1/4 or 1/2 in. section of a Pro-Zap no-pest strip (available in beesuitscheap.com store) to the inside of the lid of a closed trash container to kill the yellowjackets that may become trapped inside. 
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