After mating it is thought that the male drops off of the host and dies. The female drops off into the leaf litter, becomes dormant for the winter and lays her eggs between 1,000 and 3,000 of them the following spring. My wife found several embedded ticks on her over the summer while I, engaged in the same outdoor activities with her, didn't find any. A prime example is that they prefer high humidity. Tick activity is much greater on a moist spring day as compared to a dry day.
Temperature plays a role as well.
Nymphs would be less likely to leave the forest floor on a cool, dry day. In a sense, ticks lead a life of chance and must take what comes their way. It depends on the species. Soft ticks can survive for years under the proper conditions, but let's keep our discussion restricted to the hard ticks. In one example, I. scapularis nymphs survived 14 months in the unfed state.