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Comment by cs702 | Hacker News Reader

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cs702·

The videos of ticks flying through the air are here:

https://phys.org/news/2023-06-static-electricity-hosts-scien...

Totally worth watching.

Key take-away for me: Don't wear statically charged clothes in wooded areas.

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They walk just like headcrabs in half life, absolutely revolting

At least with headcrabs you know where you stand. Either it kills you, it gets you killed, it turns you into a zombie, or you miraculously survive.

With ticks there is that awful, wait-for-a-red-ring-to-appear-in-the-next-few-weeks phase. Oh a tick? Yeah, you're probably fine; although there is a tiny yet non-negligible chance you're health will be ruined.

Also, try hitting a tick with a crowbar. You can hardly see the little buggers.

Haha you can always send a tick to the lab and start a course of amoxicillin preemptively. But it does get a bit expensive when your kids start picking them up every other week. Unfortunately the rates of Lyme disease in many areas aren't "tiny", it's at least double digit percentages of deer ticks that are carriers.

> Key take-away for me: Don't wear statically charged clothes in wooded areas.

Isn't that most outdoor clothing? Fleece, polyester, wool, etc.

Discharge it as much as possible before going into wooded areas, I guess?

Is it plausible to have some gadget that sets you up with a reverse charge that pushes the little buggers away? I'd buy that.

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