Google temporarily closed part of its New York operations after exterminators detected evidence of bed bugs at its Chelsea campus in Manhattan.
An internal email sent to employees over the weekend advised staff to avoid the office following the discovery, Wired reported. The notice was issued on Sunday after pest control teams using bed bug detection dogs found what the company described as “credible evidence of their presence.”
The Chelsea office reopened on Monday while investigations continued across Google’s other three Manhattan locations.
Scent detection dogs are often used by exterminators and New York City authorities to identify infestations, though their accuracy has been debated. A previous study found their average detection rate to be about 44 percent, raising the possibility of false positives.
Unconfirmed reports suggested the infestation could be linked to a large number of stuffed animals kept at the Chelsea office, though Google declined to comment on that claim. Employees were asked to report any sightings or possible exposure at any of the company’s New York offices.
This is not the first time Google has faced a similar problem at the same location. In 2010, the company temporarily closed its Chelsea office after bed bugs were found, an incident first made public through an employee’s deleted tweet. At that time, Google confirmed the insects were confined to a “small area” of the building during a wider outbreak across Manhattan.