I have in my 66 years never seen yellow jackets nest anywhere but in the ground. I have been attacked by them several times mostly in hay fields. In my area they are the meanest stinging insect around. They will always attack in numbers, and in my opinion their sting hurts worse than any thing else. Maybe because you usually get several stings.
We also have red wasp, red and black wasp, hornets, bumblebees, and a host of other non or rarely stinging insects of the same familys.
Wasp build off the ground in barns, trees, bushes under eaves in boxes etc. They always build gray paper type nest with brood that favors drone brood.
Hornets build the gray paper type conical large nests that are fully enclosed with an entrance hole usually at the bottom. They are normally docile unless provoked.
Bumblebees normally wild build their nest in a fully enclosed area out of any thing that they can assemble into a nest, sorta like birds, but not with twigs. I've seen them use cloth, leaves, and a combination of several things. They too are usually docile unless provoked.
Many including me, confuse the carpenter bee, whose physical appearance is the same as the bumblebee, with the bumblebee, I don't know how they nest as they just bore holes in your building boards. I've always wondered if they are just confused bumblebees. They will rarely sting.
We also have a wasp that can be mistaken for a yellow jacket, that builds a nest like all the other wasp. But they are like other wasp in demeanor and not nearly as ornery as the yellow jackets.
Yellow jackets are not as likely to attack when they are feeding alone. But don't get close to their hole in the ground.
You can call any thing what you may desire, but that doesn't make it what you call it. I have lived in copper head snake country all my life. I have been an out door person all my life, around the springs, bluffs, and deep woods. I have only seen 8-10 real copper heads in my life. (they are anti social). But I have heard of thousands, that were in reality chicken snakes, garter snakes, black snakes, and etc. I have actually seen pictures of copper heads in the local paper that were slim, and about 5-8 feet long.
The largest real one that I have seen was less than 4' long. No one that I know has ever seen a real one any bigger.
