研究顯示:你的牀單顏色可能纔是吸引蟲子的罪魁禍首!

According to the work in the Journal of Medical Entomology, the blood-sucking insects love black and red but hate yellow and green. This information could help make better traps to lure and catch the bugs.

根據《醫學昆蟲學雜誌》中的一篇報告指出，吸血的昆蟲都喜歡黑色和紅色，但是討厭黃色和綠色。這個信息能幫助人們做出更好的誘捕並抓住蟲子。

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

但是日前來自美國的研究人員表示，要說黃色的牀單能讓他們不在你的牀上滋生爲時過早。

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.

牀蟲體型很小，他們喜歡生活在他們的食物--也就是你的血--的附近。他們會藏在牀墊縫裏或者你牀架的連接處。比起塑料和金屬，他們更青睞織物和木頭。

But Dr Corraine McNeill and colleagues wanted to find out if colors affected where bed bugs might dwell.

科瑞恩·麥克尼爾博士和他的同事們想要研究出顏色會不會對牀蟲在哪裏生活產生影響。

They carried out a series of experiments in their lab, placing bed bugs in dishes with different color shelters made out of card. Rather than taking cover at random, the bugs appeared to select the shelters according to their color, showing a preference for black and red.

他們在實驗室裏做了一系列實驗，把牀蟲放在培養皿中，再放入不同顏色的卡片做成的盒子中。實驗結果顯示，牀蟲們並沒有隨機選擇，它們看起來更樂意根據顏色來選擇居所，並表現出對黑色和紅色的特別喜愛。

Dr McNeill said: "We originally thought the bed bugs might prefer red because blood is red and that's what they feed on. 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."

麥克尼爾博士表示：“我們一開始認爲。牀蟲可能更喜歡紅色是因爲血是紅色的，而它們吸血爲生。然而，在做了研究之後，我們認爲，它們更喜歡紅色的主要原因是因爲牀蟲自己是紅色的，因此它們去這些紅色的地方是想跟其他牀蟲在一起。”

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.

研究人員還表示，牀蟲們看起來不喜歡黃色和綠色的住處，這可能是因爲這些亮色會讓它們覺得是躲在不安全的、光線直射的地方。

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. 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."

麥克尼爾博士對此表示：“我總是和人們開玩笑說，'一定要用黃色牀單哦！'但是事實上，我認爲目前的研究結果還沒意味着這麼做就一定可以不遭受蟲害。我不知道我還需要多久才能告訴人們不要買紅色的提箱或者紅色的牀單，研究還沒做完，因此我們不能完全排除任何可能性。”