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Rather than cringing at the next beetle or wasp in your way, you might want to thank them—for helping to keep city streets clean.
下次再偶遇甲虫或大黄蜂，不要感到畏惧，你要充满感激之情，因为它们帮助我们清洁城市街道的垃圾。
Researchers from North Carolina State University working in New York City found that hungry urban arthropods play a significant role in the disposal of trash.
美国北卡罗来纳州立大学研究人员在纽约市的研究发现这些饥饿的节肢动物在处理垃圾方面成为了关键先生。
For example, in a small section of Manhattan called the Broadway/West Street.corridor, insects consume the equivalent of 60,000 hot dogs a year that would otherwise be lying in the street.
比如曼哈顿名为百老汇或西街走廊的小街区上，昆虫每年能消耗掉相当于6万个热狗的垃圾，若非昆虫街头可能满是垃圾。
And that's assuming the bugs stop chowing down in winter.
而这还是假设昆虫冬天会不再进食的情况。
To assess how much discarded food bugs got rid of, the researchers placed measured amounts of hot dogs, potato chips and cookies at 21 park sites and 24 street medians.
为了弄清楚昆虫清理多少垃圾，研究人员们在21家公园和24条街道上安置了算好量的热狗、薯片和饼干。
Contrary to their prediction, location played an even bigger role in garbage consumption than biodiversity did—insects gobbled up two to three times more food in the street medians than they did in the parks.
而与研究人员预期大相径庭的是，地域性比生物多样性在垃圾消耗方面扮演了更为重要的角色—昆虫们在街道中清理垃圾的量是公园的2至3倍。
The study appears in the journal Global Change Biology.
这项研究已经在《环球生物学变革》杂志上发表。
If all that garbage disposal still does not make you an arthropod admirer, then consider this: by competing with larger pests for resources, insects help keep rat populations down.
如果昆虫大快朵颐垃圾的举动还不能让你充满感激，那换个角度想想：通过与较大的个体争夺资源，昆虫还帮助我们减少了老鼠的数量。
There's some food for thought.
这是值得深思的事情。
