CNN News: 美國(guó)蜜蜂數(shù)量逐漸減少

Back in 1947 there were 6 million honeybee hives in America according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Now there are a little over 2.5 million hives.

根據(jù)美國(guó)農(nóng)業(yè)部的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，1947年美國(guó)有600萬個(gè)蜂箱?，F(xiàn)在有250多萬個(gè)蜂箱。

That number hasn’t changed much over the past few years but the overall picture doesn’t look good for an insect that’s incredibly important to our food supply. Scientists don’t know for sure why this is happening.

在過去的幾年里，這個(gè)數(shù)字并沒有太大的變化，但是對(duì)于對(duì)我們的食物供應(yīng)極其重要的昆蟲來說，整體情況并不樂觀?？茖W(xué)家們并不確定為什么會(huì)發(fā)生這種情況。

Pesticides and parasites are the most suspected reasons and a study recently published in the scientific journal PLOS One suggests that neonicotinoids, types of pesticides that are widely used around the world are incredibly toxic to honeybees and other insects.

殺蟲劑和寄生蟲嫌疑最為突出，最近發(fā)表在科學(xué)期刊《公共科學(xué)圖書館·綜合》(PLOS One)上的一項(xiàng)研究表明，新煙堿類殺蟲劑對(duì)蜜蜂和其他昆蟲具有難以置信的毒性。

Part of the reason for that is because these pesticides appear to stick around in the environment and stay dangerous for longer periods of time.

部分原因是這些農(nóng)藥似乎會(huì)在環(huán)境中停留，并在較長(zhǎng)時(shí)間內(nèi)保持毒性。

Though they’re deadly to insects, neonicotinoids are not considered dangerous to humans. In fact, they’re a lot less toxic to people than other insecticides that have been widely used in the past. An ongoing challenge for farmers is finding ways to keep other insects away while still protecting bees.

雖然新煙堿類化合物對(duì)昆蟲是致命的，但人們并不認(rèn)為這種化合物對(duì)人類有危險(xiǎn)。事實(shí)上，與過去廣泛使用的其他殺蟲劑相比，它們對(duì)人體的毒性要小得多。農(nóng)民面臨的一個(gè)持續(xù)的挑戰(zhàn)是，如何在保護(hù)蜜蜂的同時(shí)阻止其他昆蟲食入。

Pesticides may not discriminate between the insects they kill though one neonicotinoid maker says the chemicals risk to bees is lower when it’s used properly. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it’s unlikely there’s one magic solution to the problem but there are a number of organizations trying to help honeybees.

殺蟲劑可能無法區(qū)分它們殺死的昆蟲，但一家新煙堿類生產(chǎn)商表示，如果使用得當(dāng)，殺蟲劑對(duì)蜜蜂的危害會(huì)降低。美國(guó)農(nóng)業(yè)部表示，不太可能有一個(gè)神奇的解決方案來解決這個(gè)問題，但是有一些組織試圖幫助蜜蜂。