Yes, I had one of these monster nests (underground as usual for true yellow jackets) which was far bigger than imagined. All we could see was the entrance -- a hole about 3" in diameter. There was a natural cavity, which they found and built in it over the period of a year or so. Think naively that I could just put a road flare on a long rod and push it down the hole in daylight turned out to be a big mistake -- a painful mistake. Once I learned that you WAIT until they are all in the nest at night, then you hit them with a flare, and it gets them all.
Once we dug up the nest it was about 2 feet square -- just huge. So beware --- always go after them at night --- :-)
Try the glass mixing bowl trick next time. It's fun and less dangerous.
You have to invert the glass mixing bowl over the nest entrance at NIGHT, so they're all inside.
My husband likes to pour gasoline down the entrance at night. That smothers them, but he also likes to toss in a match . . . don't think he's ever used road flares, but he'd enjoy that too.
I inadvertantly stepped on the entrance of an in-ground nest one time when I was a kid and paid dearly. Over 40 bites and or stings. Had I been allergic to them, it would have been curtains for me. Yellow jackets are mean little buggers.
Gasoline... its what's for dinner.
We had a nest outside the back door with a four-inch entrance and lived peacefully with them all summer. Their flights looked like a very busy military base - outbound high, inbound low. Then I had to look for a clean-out valve and I sneaked out one night in winter clothes, masked, goggled, gloved, booted, and discovered a dozen gleaming-eyed sentries around the hole. Poor boogers didn't stand a chance against Raid's chemical warfare - I didn't even need protective clothing.
And some daft raccoon or skunk dug out the nest and ate all the poisoned adults and larvae. Ick.
Mrs VS