Google employees were told to stay away from the company’s New York campus because of a suspected bedbug infestation.
The tech giant sent an email to staff on Sunday, saying that exterminators working with sniffer dogs had found “credible evidence of their presence” at its $2.1 billion office in Chelsea on the west side of Manhattan.
Google’s environmental, health and safety team advised all employees to avoid the office until the campus had been treated, although they were allowed to return by 8am on Monday.
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A Google spokeswoman said it had informed its workers “out of an abundance of caution”, and carried out additional inspections at its offices in Hudson Yards.
Exterminators found no sightings of bedbugs, the spokeswoman added. She denied reports that the potential outbreak was linked to a large number of stuffed animals kept at the Chelsea campus.
Employees were told to submit a report if they had seen bedbugs at the office, their home or experienced symptoms linked to bedbug exposure, and given the option of working from home.
The lobby of Google’s Chelsea site
DEB COHN-ORBACH/UCG/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY IMAGES
Bedbugs feed on blood and are difficult to eradicate thanks to their rapid reproductive cycles and resilience to common insecticides. They are easy to pick up and transport on clothes or in luggage and can hide inside mattresses or in cracks in walls, furniture, floors and ceilings.
Bedbug infestations are common in New York, according to city health officials. Google’s 9th Avenue offices in Manhattan were previously infested during a widespread outbreak in 2010.
Complaints about bedbugs rose by 17 per cent in New York in 2023 and 2,667 cases were reported between January and November 1, compared with 2,276 in the same period in 2022.
Last year the city passed a law requiring landlords to provide written notice to tenants within 72 hours of learning of an infestation.
Last month Orkin, a pest control company, ranked New York at 15th among American cities by numbers of bedbug complaints, 13 places lower than the previous year. Chicago was named the most bedbug-infested city in the nation for the fifth year in a row.