A story about a yellow jacket. This happened nearly 3 years ago. For our firewood we keep it under a shed and have a small rack in the garage that holds about what 1 row across a full-size pickup bed holds. We haul that much to the garage when needed, then carry enough for a day inside as needed and stack on the hearth next to the wood stove. One night I'm carrying wood inside and I grab a split block in the middle on the pointed edge. Soon after I feel something poking in the middle of my palm, but I ignore it at first thinking it's just a splinter. As I'm trying to grab a piece with my other hand the pain keeps getting worse until I realize it's not a splinter. I drop everything and go inside to run cold water on it and get some ice (don't really know why, that's just the first thing I thought about). I start worrying about what it could have been. Was it a scorpion, I've never been stung by one, how bad could this get? Could it have been a brown recluse, would the reaction be that quick? I finally go out to see what it was and this is what I found.
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I don't know why it was in my firewood unless it thought that was a good place to hibernate.
As far as removal, I just just hornet/wasp spray after dark until I no longer see activity. Depending on where it is I may dig it up, otherwise I'll just keep coming back for a few days. I'll typically shine the area with my headlights, they tend to not be able to see me that way and just fly towards the lights.