Scientists from Great Britain have discovered that some ticks use a clever trick to attack their host. Specifically, we are talking about static electricity that helps them latch onto a victim without the need for direct contact. This trick allows the tick to extend its range by several body lengths. About a new finding reports the website Gizmodo.
Ticks are small parasitic arachnids, which, however, are more closely related to spiders than mites. As a rule, they need the blood of other animals to survive. And it is this way of life that makes them dangerous vectors that spread a whole range of diseases to their hosts, including humans. It is estimated that nearly half a million people in the US alone become infected with Lyme disease each year.
A refined trick of ticks
Life for ticks is greatly complicated by the fact that they cannot fly or jump. To reach their prey, they must climb a leaf or other vegetation and grab the host when it physically rubs against it. However, a British scientific team has come up with a theory that ticks don’t just rely on direct contact to get to the blood they crave – they use also electrostatic energy.
In a study published last week in the journal Current Biology, the scientists backed up their theory with several lines of evidence, including laboratory experiments. They focused on the study of young ticks of the genus Ixodes ricinus, which are a common source of Lyme disease and other diseases in Europe.
In one experiment, for example, they electrostatically charged animal fur and then found that ticks can be transferred to it for a short distance. In another experiment, they demonstrated that ticks could be attracted to electrodes modified to mimic the electric field of a potential host, allowing them to be transferred through air gaps.
Static electricity in the insect world
The researchers further revealed that the natural interaction between animals, humans and surrounding vegetation can create strong electric fields, and that ticks can be equally attracted to positive and negative voltages, which likely increases the possibilities of this trick.
While the use of static electricity only extends the ticks’ ability to reach the host by a few millimeters, it is still several body lengths more, than she would be able to achieve under normal circumstances. In human terms it is “the equivalent of jumping three or four floors in one go,” lead study author Sam England told the Associated Press.
Before England’s team’s results become widely accepted, they will have to be successfully replicated by other scientists. If the findings prove correct, we may finally discover that ticks aren’t the only ones that use static electricity to their advantage. The researchers believe that this ability could be widespread among all kinds of parasites that infest the skin, including fleas, lice and mites.
2023-07-07 16:47:14
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