These populations were probably brought over from China unintentionally inside solid wood packing materials. However a list of plants mentioned in the literature is presented in Table 1. A. glabripennis prefers maples, but many other North American species can support it. The larvae hatch from the egg and burrow into the tree. The tunneling or 'galleries' can girdle stems and branches.
Early instars feed within the cambial tissues.
So far ALB has been restricted to urban street trees, but it is feared that populations will spread to wildlands and production forests. It is not clear how much damage they could cause but they have a very wide host range and might cause significant die-offs of hardwood trees. Spreading A. glabripennis populations threaten native woody species. A. glabripennis infestations of urban street and ornamental trees affects the esthetic human environment. A few species in the genus Anoplophora are serious pests in Asia.