know thy enemy, what exactly are they? any pictures would help.

I couldn't get any good pics, they wouldn't hold still! On the other hand, I was within 2 ft of their hole, they are steady flying in and out and they didn't come at me at all.

yup those are yellow jackets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_jacket

So...they have to die? I was hoping since they left me alone today they would be a harmless type. Man. So now what? Wait til night then shoot wasp killer down the hole?

They have to die? no its up to you.
Wait til night then shoot wasp killer down the hole? yup that's how you kill them if you wanted to.

What about these guys? Their bodies look similar to the yellow jacket, smooth, bright yellow, but I couldn't find anything like them on the internet!

I have a question about wasps..and do not know where to direct it so YOU ALL WIN! Last year I put up a Hobbit House

to cover up a hole in the base of a Burr Oak. Our Oaks now have Burr
Oak Blight and this tree is the worst so we decided to cut it down. We
noticed a lot of "bee" activity. The plan was to top the tree and wait
for winter to totally remove the rest. As DH and #1 son sawed off
branches, the hobbit roof fell away and inside we foundNot a bee hive and honey but the largest wasps nest we have ever seen.
After several applications, cans of wasp poison we had a very busy very active wasp nest. SOOOO after some thought and internet searches DH decided to go commando:

We now have stragglers who will not GO AWAY. What is the deal?! They no longer have a home so they hover? Why weren't they IN the hive over night? Sugar traps do NOTHING..any advise other than wait for the snow?

The colony residents marked the area with pheromones that essentially say "This is home."

Don't harass them and they won't harass you.

They will all die of natural causes by the end of the year.

"Harass" I need to mow, pick raspberries, cut up the rest of the tree--and THEY have been harassing us--bitten several times this month....