2023-07-15 10:15:35
The host as a magnet: Ticks can be attracted to their victim by electrostatic energy, a study shows. This opens up new opportunities for defence.
A tick bite can be dangerous. Because the animals can transmit pathogens that cause Lyme disease and TBE (tick-borne encephalitis). And: The risk of infection increases due to climate change – more and more regions in Germany are becoming TBE risk areas. In addition, tick species are increasingly settling here that were not originally native to Germany and can transmit diseases such as typhus and Q fever.
Protection against a tick bite is therefore becoming increasingly important. However, there are a number of persistent myths about how the parasites move. Many people believe that ticks jump on people and animals or fly to their victims. However, both are wrong. The species native to Germany neither jump nor fly – at least strictly speaking.
Because, as researchers at the British University of Bristol have now discovered, ticks are capable of a kind of flight under certain circumstances. And this knowledge could also help to effectively ward off the bloodsuckers in the future.
As if drawn by a magnet
The scientists wanted to know more precisely how ticks find their victims. The central question was whether the animals actually cling to their host and crawl up on him when the latter brushes past high grass or bushes or stays in one place for a long time.
The team discovered another mechanism that apparently makes it easier for the animals to get to their victims: electrostatic attraction. We all know them from everyday life – for example when we rub a balloon on our hair and it starts to “fly”.
Ticks benefit from this effect: the attractive effect of electric fields lifts them and transports them to the body of humans or animals, as if attracted by a magnet. So you kind of fly after all.
“Flight” over a distance of several centimetres
To do this, the scientists analyzed in the laboratory what attraction electrically charged rabbit fur exerted on nearby ticks. And indeed, the fur attracted the bloodsuckers. They can overcome up to several centimeters in “flight”.
“This static electricity also happens to animals in nature when they rub against objects around them, such as grass, sand or other animals. These charges are amazingly powerful and can amount to hundreds, if not thousands, of volts — more than you would at home out of their sockets,” says Sam England, one of the researchers involved.
The British researchers are now hoping that their discovery could help develop new ways of defending against the parasites. Clothing with an antistatic coating or antistatic sprays could be considered.
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