The winter tick is naturally found on members of the deer family and even beavers but also on cattle and horses. Humans can be bitten but usually only if they are working with infected animals, e.g. skinning a moose. Most deer species can combat the tick very effectively by grooming and by immunity responses. Moose do groom themselves by licking, biting, shaking, rubbing on trees, etc. The life cycle of this tick is unusual in that it requires only one host, rather than the normal three.
Females drop off their host in spring and lay their eggs in the leaf litter.
The eggs hatch into six-legged larvae that crawl up vegetation, such as blades of grass, and wait until they detect a suitable host. When such an animal touches the vegetation, the ticks attach and crawl upwards. They prefer the host's ears, belly, anal region, and where the legs attach. There the ticks feed a little and then rest before moulting into the next stage. This is repeated twice until they become eight-legged adults.