Yellowjackets in roof

Just discovered a couple of small masses of hornets (~20 hornets/mass) seething at the edge of the roof, so I assume I have them in my roof trusses. My ceiling is well sealed and I’ve seen no evidence of them inside and I’m wondering if there’s any issue with just leaving them alone.

I am not an insect expert, so please take this with a grain of salt.

I suspect it would be fine short term, but I worry that over time, moisture and chewing on wood to create the nest might cause problems with the roof trusses.

Yellow jackets (while providing a service to an ecosystem) are known for being more aggressive and territorial than some other insects... which might cause problems with people or pets nearby.

Once the yellow jackets, hornets or wasp nest is removed, if you continue to hear bussing then maybe there is a problem.

I suspect that one the outside nests are removed then there will be no problem.

https://permies.com/t/358168/Relocating-paper-wasps-removing-yellowjackets

Anne Miller wrote:Once the yellow jackets, hornets or wasp nest is removed, if you continue to hear bussing then maybe there is a problem.

I suspect that one the outside nests are removed then there will be no problem.

There are no exterior nests, just a bunch of hornets grouped around what I assume are entrances to their nest. Goodness knows how I’d get them out, and I’m kind of wondering if perhaps the queen is gone and the hive is breaking up. I don’t know what time of year that typically happens.

As long as they're not presenting a danger to anyone, I'd leave them be.   They do get awfully ornery this time of year though, so it's good to give them a wide berth if they're near any doorways or sidewalks.  Things like weedwackers, lawn mowers or leaf blowers can be enough to set them off, if too close. Asssuming you're up north, they'll "give up the ghost" once we start having hard frosts.  

It's my opinion that you should not ignore something like this and do everything you can from preventing it from getting out of hand. Once they get embedded, it can be a real problem and even if that specific group dies another group can come in and start adding onto an old nest.

I'm not sure what kind you're dealing with if their paper nest wasps you can crumble up white paper and hang them on little strings around your house and they will feel that they're infringing on another colony it might leave.

There's a guy on YouTube I really like, and he uses a shop vac with little soapy water in it. If you can reach it, I would suggest trying to capture them with the shop vac and even taping the shop vac in the location and banging on the wall and get them to all come out and get sucked up by the vacuum..