10 FARMERS’ BULLETIN 54. 
leprosy. In the case of these, and perhaps other diseases, the bed- 
bug shares the responsibility of transmitter with other biting insects, 
such as body lice and fleas. 
The particular réle of the bedbug as a carrier of disease has not 
been satisfactorily determined, nor has it been shown that the bed- 
bug is a necessary alternate host in any instance. In general, the 
transmission of disease by this insect has apparently resulted from 
the accidental carriage of the disease elements on the mouth parts, 
as pointed out by André,' after a careful study of the subject. As a 
parasite of human beings in private dwelling houses, where it may 
seldom change its host, the opportunity for the bedbug itself to. 
become infected with human diseases and again to transmit them 
to the human subject is very remote. This condition, however, does 
not apply to hotels or to passenger boats, where the human occu- 
pants are constantly changing. Furthermore, the fact that the bed- 
bug attacks its host at comparatively long intervals of from a week 
to several weeks or months acts as a bar to its transmission of certain 
insect-borne diseases, the biology of which requires a definite and 
comparatively short period of development in the alternate insect 
host. 
NATURAL ENEMIES OF THE BEDBUG. 
Living always in houses as it does and being well concealed, the 
bedbug is not normally subject to much if any control by natural 
enemies. Certain other household insects, however, do occasionally 
prey upon the bedbug, as, for example, the house centipede ? and the 
common little red house ant. Such enemies, however, are of very 
small importance and yield little, if any, effective control except 
under very exceptional circumstances. One such instance is reported 
by the late Mr. Theodore Pergande, of this department, who states 
that as a soldier in the Civil War he occupied at one time a barracks 
at Meridian, Miss., which had been abandoned some time before. 
The premises proved to be swarming with bedbugs; but very shortly 
afterwards the little red house ant discovered the presence of the 
bedbugs and came in enormous numbers, and Mr. Pergande witnessed 
the very interesting and pleasing sight of the bedbugs being dis- 
membered and carried away bodily by these very minute ants, many 
times smaller than the bugs which they were handling so successfully. 
The result was that in a single day the bedbug nuisance was completely 
abated. The liking of red ants for bedbugs is confirmed also by a 
correspondent writing from Florida (F. C. M. Boggess), who goes so 
far as heartily to recommend the artificial introduction of the ants 
1 André, Ch. Recherches anatomiques et expérimentales sur la punaise des lits. Jn Jour. Physiol. et 
Path. Gén., v. 14, p. 600-615. 1912. 
2 Scutigera forceps Raf. 
3 Monomorium pharaonis L. 
