I have never even heard of anyone being stung by one. I looked online and the females have a painful sting, but the males are supposedly the ones who dive-bomb you and they don’t have stingers. I just whack them with a raqcuet, it works well, they hover right in front of you. I read on line that if you throw a similar sized pebble past them they will chase it, I’ll have to try it this spring. I think they must have a good bite, I have seen them chase off cicada killers, the really big hornet looking things.
The yellow jackets and bald faced hornets are the really mean ones, at least that I have observed.
I guess I’m just a live and let live kind of guy, even with bugs unless they’re poisonous, or bite/sting. If it wasn’t for the wood damage to houses and outbuildings, I’d just let them do their thing, under the assumption that they serve a purpose in nature.
They do remember people, a coworker swatted one away from her face, sending it flying into the side of an A/C unit, pa-tinnggg. It sat there stunned for a few minutes looking crosseyed, then flew off. Now, every time she’s out there it hassles her.
I have no idea what their lifespan is, but they’ll go into a sort of suspended animation when the temp drops below fifty or so, hanging onto a brick wall or whatever. They’ll slowly revive when the sun hits them and temps get up into the sixties. Sort of strange, really.