Sharp teeth at the front of the hypostome cut blood vessels under the skin, causing the blood to form a pool. The tick then sucks this blood into its gut through the hypostome. To keep the blood from clotting, ticks inject saliva containing a kind of anticoagulant into the blood pool. The saliva may also contain disease organisms, such as Borrelia burgdorferi which cause Lyme disease. Ticks are found wherever their hosts are found.
Some ticks feed on only one type of host, while others suck blood from many different animals.
When not attached and feeding on their hosts, most hard ticks live on the ground in vegetation, such as grassy meadows, woods, brush, weeds, etc. Most ticks will crawl to the tips of grass, brush, leaves, branches, etc. The Western Black-Legged Tick is the vector of Lyme disease in the western United States, while the Pacific Coast Tick carries tularemia and is a suspected carrier of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Colorado Tick Fever. Brown Dog Ticks do not usually feed on humans.