Scientists in the UK have found evidence that some ticks use static electricity to help them latch onto hosts without the need for direct contact.
Ticks are tiny parasitic arachnids, though they’re more closely related to mites than spiders. As a rule, ticks need to feed on the blood of other animals to survive. And it’s this same way of life that makes them a prolific vector for spreading many diseases to their hosts, humans included. Every year in the U.S., almost a half million people are estimated to contractDespite their similarity, the vampiric bugs aren’t capable of flight or even jumping.
theorized that ticks aren’t just relying on direct contact to finagle themselves into prime feeding position—they’re also using electrostatic forces.over the weekend in the journal Current Biology, the researchers have presented multiple lines of evidence, including lab experiments, for their theory. They focused on studying young castor bean ticks , a common source of Lyme and other diseases in Europe.
and that the ticks can be equally attracted to both positive and negative voltages, likely increasing the opportunities for this trick to happen.
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