A Queens exterminator took down a massive hornets nest himself after city officials refused to help terrified neighbors.
Sean Cadenhead, 41, showed up unannounced Wednesday morning at the corner of Cowles Court and Dry Harbor Road in Middle Village and started spraying. The Queens-based Phase One Exterminating owner had read a report the previous Sunday about how the NYC Parks Department rejected pleas from residents and Councilman Phil Wong to remove the hive — roughly the size of two basketballs — from a city tree.
Parks Department worker bee Camile Easterling told the councilman’s staff in a Sept. 14 email that the city would not touch the stinging horde of bald-faced hornets because they “play an important role in our ecosystem.” If relocation was deemed “necessary,” Easterling said the agency instead “recommend[s] hiring a qualified insect relocator” — and that “any work performed on or involving a city tree requires” a tree work permit from the agency.
Cadenhead found the bureaucratic response disturbing.
“People walk their dogs; there’s kids; there’s so many people who come through that walkway,” said Cadenhead. “It takes just a wrong gust of wind, the wrong kid to throw a rock at it, and it could have been a disaster.”
The nest hung about 10 feet above a public sidewalk. Cadenhead estimated roughly 400 bald-faced hornets had made it their home.
He introduced himself to Betty Cocaro, 79, whose home stood mere steps from the nest, before beginning the nearly hour-long job. Dressed in white, full-body beekeeping protective gear, he first saturated the nest with pesticide, then removed it and tossed it in a black garbage bag.
Cocaro thanked Cadenhead for doing what city officials refused, saying the removal finally gave her peace of mind.
“I think it’s unbelievable, unbelievable, that people are so kind,” the 79-year-old senior said.
Cadenhead posted video of the operation on Instagram. He said he never considered charging for the work.
“Everything is not always about money — it’s just about being a good New Yorker. You got Superman, Batman and Phase One Exterminating,” Cadenhead, 41, told The Post.
Although bald-faced hornets don’t usually attack unless provoked, some people have life-threatening allergies to their stings, making the sidewalk-level nest particularly dangerous in a residential area with children and pets passing by daily.
The Parks Department did not return messages seeking comment on Cadenhead’s intervention.