Return of the bed bug
床虱重返人类生活
If you haven’t met a bed bug, countyourself lucky. These bloodsucking insects have been staging a dramaticcomeback in recent years. They can be found in hotel rooms, airplanes, clothingstores and, occasionally, movie theaters. Accidentally bring one or more ofthese lentil-sized bugs home and your family could have trouble evicting them.
如果你还没有见过床虱,那你就算幸运的了。近几年这些嗜血昆虫戏剧般的重返人类生活,最常见于旅馆、飞机机舱、服装店,并且时不时的还出现在电影院里。如果你不小心把这些豆子大小的昆虫带进家中,那么你的家人可得花点功夫来清除他们了。
The wingless bugs are reddish-brown,oval-shaped and have six legs. Some people think bed bugs smell musty. Otherscompare their scent to rotting fruit or pencil shavings.
这些无翼昆虫全身红棕色,椭圆形,六条腿。有些人觉得他们闻起来有发霉的味道,而另外一些人则觉得他们散发着腐坏的水果或铅笔屑的气味。
Bed bugs live on blood. They usually eatevery few days or week, but they don’t need to eat that often to survive. Thetiny bugs can go months without a meal. After such an unwanted fast, or evenany time they haven’t recently fed, their bodies will be flat. And that helpsthem hide in little cracks near a bed. But once a bed bug has gorged on a meal— usually human blood, and usually while you are asleep — it plumps up like aminiature balloon. Then it returns to hiding in wait of its next meal.
床虱以血液为生,几天或者一周吃一顿,并不是很频繁。更小的昆虫甚至几个月才吃一次。再这样无关紧要的慢速下,或者任何时候没有饱餐一顿,他们的身体开始变瘪。这样的体型有利于他们藏匿于床上更小的缝隙中。但是如果他们一旦吸食人类血液吃饱后(通常在人类熟睡的情况下),他们的身体则又开始像气球一样鼓起来。然后返回藏匿地点等待下次美餐。
In the past 15 years or so, the bed bug, hasbecome common all over the United States, Australia, Europe and parts of Asia.Its comeback has surprised many people because until recently, the pest hadbeen rare for some 60 years in these parts of the world. During that time, somepeople didn’t even know the bed bug existed. They thought it was a made-up creaturefrom the nursery rhyme。
在过去15年间,床虱在美国、澳大利亚、欧洲及部分亚洲地区都比较常见。它的回归让许多人都觉得很震惊,因为从过去的60年到现在这种虫子在世界上的上述地区都很罕见。那时,有些人甚至都不知道床虱的存在,以为它们只是童谣里的虚构生物。
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