By the way, have you ever wondered how ticks, those slow, wingless creatures, end up on a human body so quickly? And not just on humans. It turns out the answer to this question emerged quite recently — in 2023.
Sam England and Katie Lihou hypothesized that ticks can sense and react to the electric fields emitted by all living beings, including humans. To test this, they collected ticks and placed them on a specially grounded surface that mimicked a plant. Then they passed a 750-volt electrode over them — approximately the amount emitted by a typical mammal. The ticks immediately “jumped towards the electrode. The same thing happened when the scientists used a charged rabbit’s paw.
In general, it was discovered that ticks do not jump, fly, or even crawl deliberately towards humans. They are simply attracted to us because of the electrostatic charge — like dust or hair to a charged balloon.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 