This week I discovered a hornet nest up 40 ft in a tree. This past spring a family of gray squirrels were using a hole in the tree as their nest. But they evacuated the nest not long ago. I was looking at the hole in the tree the other day thinking that the squirrels might still be inside the hole. But I noticed some flying insects flying in and out of the hole. I got a pair of binoculars and watched the hole for a while and noticed some yellow faced big 1 1/2 Inch long hornets in the hole. I watched for a while and identified the species using my binoculars and google. So I called a exterminator to have them removed. I got to extimates, one was $185 and the other $150. I went with the latter. They were able to do the job the same day and time that they came out to give me a free estimate. A can of bug spray on a long extenstion pole and a ladder did the job. The guy came back later to spray some powder type poison into the hole to get rid of any hornets that returned to the next. The aerosol spray killed 98% of the hornets as some were away from the nest and returned later. The dust will kill any hornets that get the dust on their bodies. So now it's safe to go back out in the back yard. They were not bothering me right now but they will spread this fall and next spring they could start nesting in the garage or the attic if they find a hole to get into the atic and I didn't want that. I wanted to nip the problem in the bud.