Scarey stuff! I hope both poor dogs and your neighbor too have recovered. My husband is deadly allergic, so exterminator duties fall to me, despite my unreasoning terror of these evil critters. I deal with them by proactively spraying any and all nests regularly from spring to fall, before they gain large populations. Underground nests are tricky though, they often escape notice.

If you can erradicate the colonies you have, it will prevent late hatching queens from finding nooks to hibernate over winter and start new colonies next year. Kill before they multiply is my motto!

My husband deals with all the bees here by spraying any nests we spot. He sprays in the evening, when all the bees have come back from their daily missions. It's practically the only time we use noxious chemicals.

The fact that stings are life-threatening to so many people seems to warrant bringing out the big guns to kill them. Also, since the chemicals stay in the nest and aren't spread around, seems to me to make them less of a threat to birds, beneficial insects, and other wildlife.

I can't imagine leaving nests in the ground, especially since you have a dog and MOST especially since you're allergic to the stings.

Have you also checked out the Integrated Pest Management Forum? You'll find all kinds of advice there... from organic to chemical controls if you do a search. We've had problems with yellow jackets & they're nothing to fool around with... sneaky creatures up to no good as far as I'm concerned!

Molie

My poor son, who's 14, was mowing the lawn at the edge of our property when he suddenly got stung. He ran into the house to tell me and don't you know, two yellow jackets followed him into the house. They were buzzing and flying as if in angry mode, and I finally killed them when they landed on the back door. There was a nest in the ground, we never noticed because it's at the edge of the property where we don't go often. The poor kid didn't want to go back out there to finish the job!

Here is a link that might be useful: Finding my way