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[12] and the common little red house ant.[13] 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 dismembered 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 to abate this bug nuisance.[14] Bedbugs and other household insects, however, are not of the sort which it is convenient or profitable to turn over to their natural enemies in the hope that eradication by this means will follow, and the fact that they are preyed upon by other insects furnishes no excuse to the housekeeper for not instituting prompt remedial measures.