Generally, the female will deposit 400-600 eggs in the twigs of their preferred species. Using the blades of a sawlike, egg-laying device at the end of the abdomen, the female punctures the bark of the twig and makes a pocket in the wood. A female may deposit from 24-28 eggs in two rows in one of these pockets. She then moves forward, cuts another pocket, and lays more eggs. The pockets are placed close together in a straight row sometimes forming a continuous slit for two to three inches.
Adults live for approximately three to four weeks above ground.
Most are usually gone by the end of June. Hatching occurs six to seven weeks after egg laying, and the white, antlike nymphs work their way out of the slits and drop to the ground where they enter the soil. Here they insert their piercing-sucking mouthparts and draw plant fluid from roots of plants for the next 17 years. According to one researcher, the first instar lasts about one year, the second and third about two years each, the fourth three years, and the fifth nine years. If they feed at all, it is by sucking plant fluid from young twigs.