Adults may overwinter in the fallen shoots in warmer climates, but generally spend the winter under bark scales at the base of the tree or in the soil where they are insulated by snow. Adult beetles are 3-5 mm long, black or dark brown in color, cylindrical in shape. Adults search for brood sites during the first warm days of spring when day time high temperatures reach 10 - 12 C. Adults may fly several kilometers in search of host material for breeding or shoot feeding. Breeding sites are usually in freshly cut stumps, logs or slash, however living trees are also attacked. These trees may be stressed by insects or abiotic factors such as drought.
Females lay eggs in galleries constructed between the bark and the sapwood of the host tree.
Egg galleries are 10 - 25 cm long, eggs are 1mm long, oval and shiny white. Upon hatching, larvae feed in separate feeding galleries radiating from the original gallery made by the adult female beetle. Adults may lay eggs more than once in a season. The beetles fly to the top of pine trees, attack shoots by boring into them, and feed in the pith as they tunnel towards the tip of the shoots. Adults attack living pine trees of all sizes except seedlings.