I don’t care for yellow jackets but we have hornets around here that live in the ground. You can’t really see their nest but if you walk too close, they’ll come out and the stinging is on. Hornet stings are much more painful than yellow jackets.
In my part of Louisiana, hornets live above ground and yellow jackets, usually in the ground though I have seen them in brush piles and even houses, but usually under large roots, junked cars, or something that protects the nest from digging animals like armadillos. They both hurt like hell...
Typical hornet nest: