High Rise Specialists

[wiperhunter2]

That's a good sized one.  It was made this year; the paper outside was torn away with the wind.
Every year I would have a big one in the same maple tree in my park strip (had three maples there).  Whenever we went to eat on the back deck, the yellow jackets would come right quick and drive us back inside.  I could NEVER find it, until the leaves dropped.  was always about the size of a rugby ball.
Last December, my city cut those trees down and replaced my sidewalk that was buckled from the tree roots.  This year, no yellow jacket gangs to accost us eating on the deck! 
The biggest one I have personally seen was two houses down from me, built against the chimney and eave of the house.  I helped them take it down in the dark.  SEVEN levels!  It took three cans of spray and a garden hose in the dark to take them all down!

If they are yellow jackets, that could be the difference, wasp and yellow jackets are different and likely have different nest. All the ones around my house are wasp, so they only have that single layer of nest. Here is a pic of the two: