Naked Science Forum

General Discussion & Feedback => Radio Show & Podcast Feedback => Topic started by: thedoc on 28/09/2015 17:50:01

Title: Zebra stripes and ticks
Post by: thedoc on 28/09/2015 17:50:01

Alison Fry asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Re Zebra stripes perhaps being of use to deter flies  What about stipes as a possible deterrent for TICKS?  As children in the bush in Zimbabwe we noticed that our grey horse did not attract as many ticks, as did the brown horse.
What do you think?

Title: Re: Zebra stripes and ticks
Post by: MolonLabe on 28/09/2015 18:40:51

You may be right, but why would that make any difference to ticks? Two horses is not really a statistically significant sample. Could there be differences other than colour, such as sex, height, habits, etc.?