(单词翻译:单击)
According to the work in the Journal of Medical Entomology, the blood-sucking insects love black and red but hate yellow and green. This information could help make better traps to lure and catch the bugs.
根据《医学昆虫学杂志》中的一篇报告指出,吸血的昆虫都喜欢黑色和红色,但是讨厌黄色和绿色。这个信息能帮助人们做出更好的诱捕并抓住虫子。
But it is too soon to say if yellow sheets can stop them nesting in your bed, say the US researchers.
但是日前来自美国的研究人员表示,要说黄色的床单能让他们不在你的床上滋生为时过早。
Bed bugs are tiny and they like to live close to their next meal - your blood. They can hide in the seam of your mattress or a joint in your bed frame. They tend to prefer fabric and wood over plastic and metal.
床虫体型很小,他们喜欢生活在他们的食物--也就是你的血--的附近。他们会藏在床垫缝里或者你床架的连接处。比起塑料和金属,他们更青睐织物和木头。
But Dr Corraine McNeill and colleagues wanted to find out if colors affected where bed bugs might dwell.
科瑞恩·麦克尼尔博士和他的同事们想要研究出颜色会不会对床虫在哪里生活产生影响。
They carried out a series of experiments in their lab, placing bed bugs in dishes with different color shelters made out of card. Rather than taking cover at random, the bugs appeared to select the shelters according to their color, showing a preference for black and red.
他们在实验室里做了一系列实验,把床虫放在培养皿中,再放入不同颜色的卡片做成的盒子中。实验结果显示,床虫们并没有随机选择,它们看起来更乐意根据颜色来选择居所,并表现出对黑色和红色的特别喜爱。
Dr McNeill said: "We originally thought the bed bugs might prefer red because blood is red and that's what they feed on. However, after doing the study, the main reason we think they preferred red colors is because bed bug themselves appear red, so they go to these harborages because they want to be with other bed bugs."
麦克尼尔博士表示:“我们一开始认为。床虫可能更喜欢红色是因为血是红色的,而它们吸血为生。然而,在做了研究之后,我们认为,它们更喜欢红色的主要原因是因为床虫自己是红色的,因此它们去这些红色的地方是想跟其他床虫在一起。”
The bugs appeared to dislike yellow and green shelters, possibly because these bright colors remind them of brightly lit areas that are less safe to hide in, say the researchers.
研究人员还表示,床虫们看起来不喜欢黄色和绿色的住处,这可能是因为这些亮色会让它们觉得是躲在不安全的、光线直射的地方。
Dr McNeill said: "I always joke with people, 'Make sure you get yellow sheets!' But to be very honest, I think that would be stretching the results a little too much. I don't know how far I would go to say don't get a red suitcase or red sheets, but the research hasn't been done yet, so we can't really rule that out completely."
麦克尼尔博士对此表示:“我总是和人们开玩笑说,'一定要用黄色床单哦!'但是事实上,我认为目前的研究结果还没意味着这么做就一定可以不遭受虫害。我不知道我还需要多久才能告诉人们不要买红色的提箱或者红色的床单,研究还没做完,因此我们不能完全排除任何可能性。”