wasps in my soil

Just leave it - they are dying off with the cold weather.  If you meet a wasp at the moment they are really slow - old, cold and often drunk on rotten fruit.  Not aggressive at all.  The biggest risk is they don't have the wit to get out of the way of a hand or a knee ...   

Watch the area and find the entrance. You may have disturbed it but they will soon dig their way out again. If it is safe do do do without poisoning your potatoes get some powder or a spray from a chemist or a garden centre and apply it to the entrance at dusk when most of the wasps are inside. Beware the few always left on guard at the entrance.

If there are only a few wasps it is possible that the workers have already died off and what you are seeing is young queens which will hibernate for the Winter and then start their own nests in the Spring. I would have thought it was a little early for that.

Please do not be offended by this question. Are you sure they are wasps and not bumble bees?

I am not offended at all, but no they are definately wasps.  Not last year but at the end of the previous year I thought I had a nest but never saw anything last year and nothing this year until I dug my potatoes out.  Think I've definately disturbed something - they looked determined to get back in!

quick dig your spuds and then run. as others have said just leave them be and all will be ok you should not see them again at least not in the same place.

ps i ''think'' i seen a hornet a good few month back now hovering around the waterfall in the pond it was well over an inch long and fat not like anything i have seen before i could not get away any quicker then i did. think i was more scared for my daugter then myself. thats what i keep telling myself anyway