Invented “electric chair” for ticks: death will be painless

But then the parasite should still be taken for analysis

A device for catching and storing ticks was developed by a group of Kaluga inventors. Recently, their invention was protected by a patent of the Russian Federation.

As it became known to MK, the development consists of two chambers, rectangular in cross section, inserted one into the other. The larger chamber is divided by a partition with a hole, on one side there is a container for a tick, on the other side there is a second chamber with an electropiezoelectric element and a button. On one of the side walls of the larger chamber there is a sliding cover, on its front end there is a V-shaped slot, on the inside of the end there is a contact pad of the high-voltage electrode of the piezoelectric element, made in the form of a metal plate.

If a tick is found, it must be pryed off with a slot, the lid of the device should be pushed in and the arthropod should be shocked. For exposure, explain the authors of the invention, an electric discharge with a power of 5 kV to 20 kV can be used. For some time, the tick will lose consciousness, its mouth apparatus will be immobilized, so it will be easy to remove it from the skin. To consolidate success, you need to shock the bloodsucker a couple more times. Upon completion of euthanasia, it should be taken to a clinic or diagnostic laboratory to find out if the tick had encephalitis or borreliosis during its lifetime. And although in our latitudes the probability of this is small, this possibility should not be ruled out.