This is Vespula areanaria, commonly known as a "Sandhills Hornet." I have problems with them nesting here every few years or so. One year, they got into a window frame, and got in the house a few at a time over the winter. This time, they got in via the cable box lead through the brick, nested inside, and ate their way through the sheetrock into the garage. Hundreds, if not thousands, of them were nesting there. We discovered it because all the debris from the drywall was piled up on the ledge of the foundation behind a huge ugly oil painting the previous owner left there almost 13 years ago.

This meant war. Haul out the Raid "Ant & Roach" spray, and a vacuum cleaner. Half a can of Raid sprayed into the hole in the wall seemed to do a pretty good job on whatever the vacuum cleaner couldn't get.

The funniest reaction was from the neighbors. Instead of staring and coming over to ask what was happening, they looked, immediately looked away, stuck their snoots up in the air and marched away really quickly. Their message: "I'll pretend I never saw that. Nobody performs such an operation in our hoity-toity neighborhood."

Guess what, folks? If it happened in your garage, you'd call an exterminator, rather than take care of it yourself. That's the only difference. This cost us a whole lot less.