The Shocking Truth: Static Electricity Attracts Ticks to Hosts
Researchers have discovered that static electric fields naturally produced by animals, including humans, can physically attract ticks onto their hosts. The study demonstrates that ticks are attracted to both positive and negative electric fields, suggesting that they are polarized in some way. This finding could potentially be used to improve antistatic tick defenses. While the role of static electricity in the tick life cycle still needs to be confirmed with live hosts outside of the lab, the researchers believe it is likely to occur in nature.