> Here in the Chattanooga, TN area,  we have fore than enough yellow jackets.
>  Anyone who feels the need,  feel to gather as many as you like.  I got one
> swarm call this year that turned out to be the biggest Yellow Jacket nest I
> have ever seen.  There were so many coming and going that it did appear to
> be a honey bees nest from a distance and the home owner didn't want to get
> close.
>
> I have seen one of the large European Yellow Jackets, if that what it was,
> It was carrying a locust and went under my sister-in-laws house.
>
Frank,
 
I found an enormous hornet digging under a flower pot. It was 1 1/4 inches long.
Markings were similar to a yellow jacket. The biggest yellow jacket I've ever seen!
My Audubon bug book suggests that it is a "Cicada Killer" (Sphecius speciosus).
They capture cicadas to place in the next. Eggs are laid on the cicada.
 
Sound like the same thing you saw.
 
BTW, in Pittsburgh PA the yellow jackets seem to be having an typical year.
 
Kevin D. Parsons