I do not know about yellow jackets - but I had carpenter bees that must have hybernated in the attic during the winter - then had baby carpenter bees getting into the upstairs from the bathroom vents. Our solution - called the exterminators, they "bomb'd" the attic - twice
to eliminate the bees. Then had to find and seal the entry points. Hope you do not have little ones at home - else I would call the exterminator now

First, know that very shortly afteer the weather turns somewhat colder that nest will be gone, the workers will die and the queens will leave to find a new place to nest, so you really do not need to do anything now.
Second, once that nest is abandoned they won't return so you can plug the entry once you know they are gone.
Carbaryl is the most toxic stuff you can use to "control" anything and should not be your first choice to use on an IPM discussion board, unless your health and safety are threatened, and since these wasps have been there for a fairly long time that probably isn't the case. At this time I really would not do anything.

What I read here is what I've been hearing, but there's one problem. I have a crack in my foundation and I got a yellow jacket nest in there during the summer. I've been waiting patiently for Spring to arrive, thinking the nest is abandoned and all the workers have died. Then I plan to patch the hole. The problem is, it's February in New York, 2 feet of snow on the ground, and I just killed a healthy looking flying yellow jacket in my work room! Now I'm concerned if I patch the hole this Spring, they're still in there and will come out in the house. Any thoughts on that? Thank you.

The wasp queens that will establish next seasons wasp nests hibernate during the winter and that could be inside our houses and that could mean that they come out during warm weather spells just as the Lady Beatles and Box Elder bugs do. The rest of any nest will have died off.

Thanks kimmsr, we haven't had any warm days recently in upstate NY that's for sure. You did get me thinking however. I'm selling some items on Ebay, and a few days ago I brought several boxes down from our unheated attic to ship my items in. I put them in my workroom, which is where the yellow jacket showed up. When I went to pack some of the boxes I noticed a couple cluster flies in them that were moving around. Hopefully, there was also a queen bee hibernating in one of them and that's how it got into my workroom. If so, the warmth in my heated work room would account for seeing her flying around.