 disappear. Black-legged ticks aren't choosy and will happily feed on most mammals. But small rodents like chipmunks or white-footed mice or shrews are particularly good hosts for them. And they're also the animals that infect the ticks with pathogens, like the one that causes Lyme. When we allow suburban sprawl to break up big chunks of forests, predators like bobcats, foxes, weasels and raptors leave, and other animals too. And that creates room for rodents to thrive.