Scholastic and Penguin Offices Sprayed for Bedbugs

Posted on September 3, 2009

The New York Observer reports that the offices of publisher Scholastic were evacuated in order to spray for bedbugs.

Scholastic became the second New York publishing house in a week to suffer a bedbug scare this past Friday afternoon, as employees were told to put whatever belongings they needed over the weekend into plastic bags and asked to go home. As was widely reported at the time, a similar scene had taken place at Penguin's offices in Hudson Square just days earlier.

According to Scholastic corporate spokeswoman Kyle Good, a sniffing dog was brought in on Thursday to the children's publishing headquarters on Broadway after an employee reported having a bedbug infestation at home. The dog barked, Ms. Good said, which meant there was a possibility that bed bugs were in the building.

No actual bedbugs were found in either office, but the spraying was done as a precaution. New York City has been suffering from an infestation of bedbugs. We admit that we had no idea that there were dogs who are specially trained to sniff out bedbugs.

We do hope that they are taking notes over in the writers' room at the new book editor sitcom, Open Books. Bedbugs are hilarious -- unless, of course they are infesting your home or office.