Natural History Wanderings

University of Bristol News Release

Ticks can be attracted across air gaps several times larger than themselves by the static electricity that their hosts naturally accumulate, researchers at the University of Bristol have discovered.

This likely greatly increases their efficiency at finding hosts to parasitise because ticks are not capable of jumping, and therefore this is the only mechanism by which they would be able to make contact with hosts that are beyond the reach of their tiny legs.

Read on at  2023: Static electricity attracts ticks to hosts, scientists find | School of Biological Sciences | University of Bristol