Google’s New York Offices Reportedly Developed a Bug Problem (and Not the Software Kind)

Google has suffered from plenty of bugs over the years but the vast majority of them have been of the digital variety. Now, however, one of the company’s New York offices is apparently suffering from an infestation of real bugs—you know, insects, creepy crawlers, God’s punishment for the wicked, etc. Specifically, the tech giant’s building appears to have recently been overrun by every New Yorker’s greatest fear: bed bugs.

That news comes from Wired, which managed to get ahold of an internal email testifying to the dreaded bugs’ presence within the company’s walls at its Manhattan campus. The email, which was sent Sunday, was shared with Gizmodo by a Google representative when we asked for comment. Google has already paid a team to take care of the plague, it seems. The email says:

Our REWS team was recently informed of a possible bed bug issue at our Chelsea campus. Today, exterminators inspected the NYC-9TH, Chelsea Market, 8510, and Pier 57 buildings with a sniffer dog and found credible evidence of their presence. Initial treatment has been completed on the affected floors of the Chelsea campus and our Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) team will directly notify individuals in impacted areas.

Worse still, it appears that a menagerie of stuffed animals at the office may have been the ground zero for the outbreak:

Sources tell WIRED that Google’s offices in New York are home to a number of large stuffed animals that are rumored to be implicated in the outbreak. WIRED was not able to verify this information prior to publication. Google declined to comment.

A Google representative told Gizmodo that workers were allowed to return to the impacted office on Monday, although the company is apparently carrying out inspections at its other offices throughout the city.

Bed bugs have been a persistent problem for the Big Apple, and everybody knows what a destabilizing impact an infestation can have. It’s probably a bit of a shock to the Google crowd who, according to Google’s past news coverage and that Owen Wilson movie, are supposed to be some of the happiest workers on the planet.

While bed bugs are not known to carry diseases, they’re still incredibly gross. They feed on blood, and, as a result, they often leave blood stains on the sheets of the bed in which they live. Luckily, the threat of the bugs seems to have gone down in recent years. A recent report from pest control company Orkin shows New York has declined in the list of places most at-risk for such infestations.