They spend the winter months inside the thick bark at the base of living pine trees. Adults can fly several miles during this period in search of a suitable host. Females lay eggs in gallery systems they bore between the inner bark and outer sapwood of the tree. Egg galleries are 10 to 25 cm long. From April to June, larvae feed under the bark of the tree in separate feeding galleries 4 to 9 cm long.
Mature larvae stop feeding, pupate, and emerge as adults.
From July through October, adults tunnel out and fly to new pine shoots to feed. The beetles bore into the center of the shoot during maturation feeding, hollowing 2.5 to 10 cm of wood. Affected shoots droop, turn yellow, and fall off during the summer and fall. Feeding adults attack living pine trees of all sizes. This is the most destructive stage of the life cycle.