Help! I have yellow jackets.

First, thanks for recognizing the difference between yellow jackets and honeybees. They can look a lot alike, especially if you are not used to inspecting flying, stinging insects.

My first suggestion is, can you live with them until fall? Honeybees overwinter, but yellow jackets do not. Only the queen will live past the first frost, and she won't set up house in the same place next spring.

Yellow jackets are good pollinators, and might eat mosquitoes. They are more aggressive in defending their hives, especially in fall, but they aren't all bad!

If the nest is in an out of the way location, consider marking out a good comfortable circumference around it to notify people and remind yourself where it is, and leaving it along.

If that is not an option, I can give you a recommendation for a honeybee-friendly exterminator.

If you want to get rid of them yourself, I do not recommend pouring gasoline or kerosene on the hive. Be safe.