The brown dog tick infests homes and other buildings harboring dogs. These ticks have a strong tendency to crawl upward and may be found behind moldings at the top of walls or hidden in cracks and crevices in houses, garages, in the ceiling. They may also be found in furniture, behind curtains, behind radiators, behind baseboards, under rugs, around window, door moldings, on draperies and walls.

Ticks wait for host animals from the tips of grasses and shrubs (not from trees). When brushed by a moving animal or person, they quickly let go of the vegetation and climb onto the host. Ticks can only crawl; they cannot fly or jump. Ticks found on the scalp have usually crawled there from lower parts of the body. Some species of ticks will crawl several feet toward a host. Ticks can be active on winter days when the ground temperatures are about 45o Fahrenheit.
These ticks have a strong tendency to crawl upward and may be found behind moldings at the top of walls or hidden in cracks and crevices in the ceiling. Couple of this behavior with the climbing behavior of newly hatched larvae or other stages that have not obtained a blood meal recently, and one can understand why nearly all cracks & crevices in an infested premise must be carefully treated to obtain complete and adequate tick control.

A tick's diet consists of blood and only blood. Dog blood.
In the US, the brown dog tick prefers to feed on dogs in all stages. However, it will feed on other mammals, including domestic animals and humans. In the southeastern US, it has been reported occasionally from rodents and deer, but most collections are from dogs and (much less commonly) humans.

Dog ticks are a nuisance to the host animal and the household. Although they seldom attack humans, they are vectors for Brown Dog Ticks Can Carry Lyme disease.