We all know someone who goes for a walk in the woods, and comes back with many ticks crawling on them. The tiny arachnids seem to be everywhere and can be a real pain. Turns out, though, that the phrase “tick magnet” may describe something real. Researchers at the University of Bristol have been studying the electric charge of ticks, trying to determine if one reason we can’t seem to be rid of them is a fundamental force of nature: electromagnetism.
As anyone who has worn wool socks in the winter knows, humans, like most animals, have a static electric field around us. Ticks, it seems, have evolved to capitalize on this field using it to draw themselves toward animals and latch on to them.
What happens is that they stand on top of a grounded plant, whose electric charge is diffused into the earth. Then, when an animal passes by, the ticks are pulled against gravity and toward the animal by the animal’s electric charge.
The study mimicked these conditions by putting ticks on a grounded plate and passing a charged electrode and a charged rabbit’s foot over them. In both cases, the ticks were drawn toward the charged item. Moreover, the ticks seem to be attracted to positive and negative electric charges equally, suggesting that the creatures carry an innate polarized electric field rather than carrying their own static charges.
Scientists still want to do more experiments, particularly to test ticks outside of laboratory conditions, but if this theory holds, it could suggest new and unexpected ways to deal with the notorious pest.
