Many wooden shipping crates that enter the U.S. contain hungry stowaways: invasive species of insects. Although these pests often ___1___ trees, they also ___2___ a different resource: money.

After dividing up the invaders into three categories based on their diet—some insects ___3___ wood while others chew foliage or slurp sap—researchers chose the most damaging species from each category. Then they analyzed the cost of these “poster pests” to five sectors: federal and local governments, households, residential property values and timber values. The non-native bugs cost local governments a whopping $1.7 billion every year, while also ___4___ $830 million dollars in residential property values. [Juliann E. Aukema et al., "Economic Impacts of Non-Native Forest Insects in the Continental United States," in PLOS One]

To keep the ravenous insects from causing more economic damage, one of the study’s authors, Juliann Aukema of U.C. Santa Barbara, urges stronger regulations on international trade. Bug-sniffing dogs might help. After all, they ___5___ keeping trees healthy.

—Sophie Bushwick
【视听版科学小组荣誉出品】
dine on devour bore through gobbling up have a vested interest in
通过航运入境美国的很多木箱中携带了大量饥饿的偷渡者：入侵物种——昆虫。这些害虫常啃噬树木，但事实上，间接遭罪的是人们口袋里的钱…… 研究人员按照昆虫的食物将它们分成三类：一类钻枝干，一类吃树叶，一类吸树汁，然后从这三类中挑出破坏性最强的物种，以此分析了这些大牌们在五个不同环境（联邦、各地政府、一般家庭、物业、木料）下的散财能力。这些蛀虫每年能啃掉当地政府部门高达17亿美元，物业受损额达830,000,000美元。 为避免这帮贪婪的蛀虫造成更大的经济损失，本研究作者之一，加州大学圣芭芭拉分校的朱利安•澳柯玛，呼吁对国际贸易加强约束。臭虫狗就能帮上大忙，毕竟保护树木也是有既得利益滴~~