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I noticed the first bee one afternoon as my dog gleefully chased it around the house.
我注意到第一只蜜蜂是在一天下午，当时我的狗正在房子周围欢快地追逐它。
When the pest settled on a window by the stairwell, I swatted it with a cookbook and cleaned up the mess.
当它落在楼梯间旁边的窗户上时，我用一本食谱书拍死了它，然后把死掉的蜜蜂清理干净。
Five minutes later, another bee buzzed at the same window.
五分钟后，另一只蜜蜂在同一扇窗户上嗡嗡作响。
Then a third in my kids’ room.
然后在我孩子的房间里发现了第三只蜜蜂。
When I heard a loud droning coming from inside a wall next to my son’s bed, the ominous situation finally hit me: The house was infested.
当我听到我儿子床边的一堵墙里传来巨大的嗡嗡声时，我终于意识到了我的厄运：家里被蜜蜂入侵了。
This was early April, the start of “swarm season,” when honeybee colonies search for places to build new hives.
当时是4月初，“蜂群季节”刚刚开始，成群的蜜蜂在寻找建造新蜂巢的地方。
A small gap in the roof gave them access to our attic and put us on the honeybee real estate market.
屋顶上的一个小缝隙让蜜蜂进入了阁楼，让我家进入了蜜蜂的房地产市场。
But in those first frantic hours, as I darted from room to room slamming the book on them, we thought the insects might be wasps.
但在最初很疯狂的几个小时里，当我从一个房间冲到另一个房间，把书扔向蜜蜂时，我们以为这些昆虫可能是黄蜂。
My husband called an exterminator, who agreed to come the next morning.
我丈夫给灭虫人员打了电话，他同意第二天早上来。
Then a bee-loving friend who saw a photo told us they were honeybees.
然后，一位喜欢蜜蜂的朋友看到了我拍的一张照片，告诉我们这是蜜蜂。
When we updated the exterminator, he canceled the appointment.
当我们把这个新信息告诉灭虫人员时，他取消了预约。
Once honeybees move in, it turns out, they are particularly difficult to evict.
原来一旦蜜蜂来到一个地方，就非常难赶走。
Over the past two decades, fears of a collapsing honeybee population have inspired elegiac journalism and 30 state laws aiming to protect pollinators.
在过去20年里，对蜜蜂数量锐减的担忧引发了许多哀悼蜜蜂的新闻报道，也让30个州出台了旨在保护传粉昆虫的法律。
Three states have given special tax breaks to beekeepers, and others have devoted millions to studying the disappearing colonies.
有三个州为养蜂人提供了特殊税收优惠，还有一些州投入了数百万美元来研究正在消失的蜂群。
In Washington, where I live, the DC Beekeepers Alliance notes that it is “illegal for pest control contractors to spray honeybees.”
在我居住的华盛顿，“华盛顿养蜂人联盟”指出：“虫害防治承包商向蜜蜂喷杀虫喷雾是非法的。”
As evening approached and a gray cloud of bees grew steadily outside our roof’s crack, we headed to a hotel, kids and energetic dog in tow.
随着夜幕降临，一大群蜜蜂形成一团灰云，在房顶缝隙的外面逐渐越变越多，于是我们只好带着孩子和精力充沛的狗前往一家酒店。
My husband and I stared at our phones on the crisp hotel sheets, panic-searching online for answers.
我和丈夫盯着干净的酒店床单上的手机，慌乱地在网上寻找答案。
Honey bees are one of the two species, the other is humans, that can communicate directions to a new place without directly leading others there.
所有物种中，只有蜜蜂和人类可以不需要直接带领同伴前往一个新地方，就能把去那里的路线告诉给同伴的动物。
And they engage in an elaborate, democratic process to choose new homes.
而且蜜蜂选择新家时还要参与一个复杂、民主的程序。
They prefer to build hives in tight spaces about the size of a large backpack, often within crawl spaces, walls and attics.
蜜蜂更喜欢在狭小空间里（差不多大背包的大小）建造蜂巢，通常是在人们只能爬行的空间、墙壁和阁楼内。
Once established in a comfy spot, they can stay there indefinitely, building hives and producing honey.
一旦在一个舒适的地方定居下来，它们就可能无限期地住下来，在那里建造蜂巢并酿蜜。
Ben Hottel, an entomologist and spokesman for Orkin, a pest control company, later told me: “When we identify a honeybee issue, we try to have a local beekeeper assist.”
虫害控制公司奥金的发言人、昆虫学家本·霍特尔后来告诉我：“当我们发现蜜蜂问题时，我们会尝试寻求当地养蜂人的协助。”
So we tried the swarm squad, a volunteer group of beekeepers who will collect wayward colonies.
于是我们尝试联系了蜂群小组，这是一个由养蜂人组成的志愿者团队，他们会去收走难控制的蜂群。
Unfortunately, the squad generally only deals with outdoor hives.
不巧的是，小组通常只处理户外蜂群问题。
A representative recommended a dozen other beekeepers with indoor expertise.
一名代表推荐了其他十几名有室内专业知识的养蜂人。
Every one of them told me the same thing: Our problem was too small.
这些养蜂人都告诉我一件事：我们的问题太小了。
When a colony is looking for a new home, it sends out a few hundred “scouts” to find options, each visiting 10 to 20 possible locations.
当一个蜂群在寻找新家时，会派出数百名“侦察蜂”寻找可供选择的地点，每只蜂会去10到20个可能的地点。
When a scout likes a place, it returns to the hive and performs a “waggle” dance that tells its brethren exactly how far and in what direction they need to travel to find the potential home.
当侦查蜂喜欢一个地方时，它会回到蜂巢，并表演一种“摇摆”舞，告诉同伴他们需要飞多远、朝着什么方向去这个可能的新家。
The more vigorous the dance, the more a scout likes the location.
舞蹈越活跃，侦查蜂就越喜欢这个地方。
Eventually, the thousands of hive dwellers vote on which place they like best.
最终，成千上万的蜂巢居民会投票选出他们最喜欢的地方。
Apparently, scouts were sizing up our home.
显然，侦查蜂在估量我们的房子。
To us, they were plenty alarming on their own.
对我们来说，这些侦查蜂本身就足够令人担忧了。
But the beekeepers reassured us that they were unlikely to sting; they didn’t have a hive or queen to defend.
但养蜂人向我们保证，它们不太可能叮人，因为这里没有蜂箱或蜂王让它们保护。
Call us back, they said, when you see a few thousand bees.
他们说，等你看到几千只蜜蜂时，再给我们打电话。
