牀蝨重返人類生活

Return of the bed bug

牀蝨重返人類生活

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.

如果你還沒有見過牀蝨，那你就算幸運的了。近幾年這些嗜血昆蟲戲劇般的重返人類生活，最常見於旅館、飛機機艙、服裝店，並且時不時的還出現在電影院裏。如果你不小心把這些豆子大小的昆蟲帶進家中，那麼你的家人可得花點功夫來清除他們了。

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.

這些無翼昆蟲全身紅棕色，橢圓形，六條腿。有些人覺得他們聞起來有發黴的味道，而另外一些人則覺得他們散發着腐壞的水果或鉛筆屑的氣味。

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.

牀蝨以血液爲生，幾天或者一週吃一頓，並不是很頻繁。更小的昆蟲甚至幾個月才吃一次。再這樣無關緊要的慢速下，或者任何時候沒有飽餐一頓，他們的身體開始變癟。這樣的體型有利於他們藏匿於牀上更小的縫隙中。但是如果他們一旦吸食人類血液吃飽後（通常在人類熟睡的情況下），他們的身體則又開始像氣球一樣鼓起來。然後返回藏匿地點等待下次美餐。

In the past 15 years or so, the bed bug, hasbecome common all over the United States, Australia, Europe and parts of 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。

在過去15年間，牀蝨在美國、澳大利亞、歐洲及部分亞洲地區都比較常見。它的迴歸讓許多人都覺得很震驚，因爲從過去的60年到現在這種蟲子在世界上的上述地區都很罕見。那時，有些人甚至都不知道牀蝨的存在，以爲它們只是童謠裏的虛構生物。