basically, ticks are fishing from the low brush and grass. they hang around with their "hooks" out waiting for something to wander by where their hair or fur snags on the tick's hooks and away they go!

They hang out in grass that's a little higher which is why putting your pants in your socks can work sometimes.

That and having a shower after having been in the forest. I lived in a Lymes area and never got anything like that.

Fun fact, when you see someone forest walking out their rectangle of white cloth or some dude waving a white flag at tall grass, it’s actually researchers collecting questing ticks (those that wait in the grass to catch onto something)

https://northernwoodlands.org/images/made/images/articles/1_forest_mgt_ticks_web_400_240_60.jpg

They usually climb up grass and wait till something passes they can hold on to.