Chemicals in tobacco leaves are known to repel arthropods such as parasitic mites, so Monserrat Suárez-Rodríguez […] and her colleagues wondered whether city birds were using cigarette butts in the same way.
[…]
They measured the amount of cellulose acetate (a component of cigarette butts) in the nests, and found that the more there was, the fewer parasitic mites the nest contained.
[…]
the team found that devices with unsmoked butts had many more parasites attached to them than devices with smoked butts — which contain more nicotine as the cigarette smoke has passed through them.
[City birds use cigarette butts to smoke out parasites sur Nature.com]
Intéressant de voir comment, encore une fois, la nature a su s’adapter et tirer profit de l’activité humaine.