Gizmodo: Ticks pee all over themselves when they suck blood

Benoit, an associate professor of biological sciences in UC's College of Arts and Sciences, has studied ticks at UC's Center for Field Studies and at Great Parks of Hamilton County. He spoke about an independent study by the University of Tours in France published in BioRxiv. 

Turns out Hamlet's vengeful phrase "Now could I drink hot blood" isn't far from the mark when it comes to a species of soft tick found in South America. The blood they drink can dangerously raise their body temperature.

"You go from 20 degrees Celsius to 34 degrees Celsius in, like, 10 seconds," Benoit told Gizmodo. "It's pretty abrupt, I mean, [humans] would pass out if we heated up that quickly."

Since ticks can't sweat like we do when we tuck into a hot or spicy meal, the South American ticks cool themselves off with pee instead. The ticks withstand their hot meal through evaporative cooling.

Read the Gizmodo story.