Bed bugs repulsed by certain colors

臭虫也有讨厌的颜色

According to the work in the Journal of Medical Entomology, the blood-sucking insects love black and red but hate yellow and green.

根据医学昆虫学杂志中的论文，吸血的昆虫都喜欢黑色和红色但是讨厌黄色和绿色。

This information could help make better traps to lure and catch the bugs.

这个信息能帮助人们做出更好的陷阱来诱捕并抓住虫子。

But it is too soon to say if yellow sheets can stop them nesting in your bed, say the US researchers.

但是美国的研究员说，要说黄色的床单能让你的床不招惹臭虫又太早了。

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.

臭虫体型很小，他们喜欢靠近他们的食物生活，也就是你的血。他们能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.

但是Corraine McNeil博士和他的同事们想要研究出颜色会不会对臭虫可能生活的地方有影响。

They carried out a series of experiments in their lab, placing bed bugs in dishes with different color shelters made out of card.

他们在实验室里做了一系列实验，把臭虫放在盘子里，盘子有不同颜色的卡片做成的盖子。

Rather than taking cover at random, the bugs appeared to select the shelters according to their color, showing a preference for black and red.

臭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.

McNeil博士说：“我们一开始想的是臭虫可能更喜欢红色因为血是红色的而它们吸血为生。”

"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."

“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臭虫它们自己是红色的，因此它们去到这些红色的地方是因为他们想跟其他臭虫在一起。”

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.

研究员说，臭虫们看起来不喜欢黄色和绿色的住处，可能是因为这些亮色会让它们觉得是躲起来不安全的光线亮堂的地方。

Past studies have found these two colors are unattractive to other blood-sucking insects such as mosquitoes and sandflies.

以前的研究发现过其他的吸血虫子也都不喜欢这两种颜色，比如蚊子和白蛉。

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.

McNeil博士说：“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虫害。”

"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."

“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，但是研究还没做完，因此我们不能完全排除任何可能性。”

How to spot bed bugs:

如何辨认臭虫：

Inspect the crevices and joints of your mattress and bed frame for any visible bugs - they are flat, oval-shaped and up to 5mm long and are red or brown in color, depending on when they last fed

检查床垫和床架的缝隙和接缝处，可能有看得见的虫子——他们是扁平的，椭圆形的，大概5毫米长。颜色是红色或者棕色，这取决于他们上次进食是什么时候

Look for black spots on your mattress - dried faeces from the bugs

找床垫上的黑点——干了的虫粪

Adult bugs can produce an unpleasant musty odor that you might be able to smell

成年臭虫会产生一种难闻的霉味，你可能会闻得到

Check your sheets for blood spots from squashed bed bugs

检查你的床单上有没有血点，那是被压扁的臭虫

Look for any skin rash or itchy bump from bed bug bites

看看身上有没有臭虫咬过之后的皮疹或者发痒的肿块