Adult males have short inch-long clear wings, hairy black bodies and feathery antennae emerge. They fly and seek out a female to mate. Females do not develop into moths, but remain inside bags and resemble maggots, with no functional eyes, legs, mouthparts or antennae. Other bagworm species spend winter months as a partially-developed caterpillars that complete feeding and pupate in the spring. Adults emerge in the spring, although some emerge through October.
Females produce a clutch of eggs in their bags before dropping to the ground to die.
Feeding larvae of all stages occur during the spring and summer. Caterpillars have chewing mouthparts. A wide range of boadleaf and evergreen trees and shrubs serve as hosts for bagworm species, including arborvitae and other ornamental conifers, box elder, cedar, cypress, elm, fruit and nut trees, juniper, live oak, locust, maple, persimmon, pines, salt cedar, sumac, sycamore, wild cherry, willow and many other ornamental plants. Infested plants develop more bagworms each year because female stages do not fly. They may become abundant enough in some years to completely defoliate their host plant.