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. In 1998, considerable damage, including tree mortality, was found to be occurring on Scots, red, white and jack pine in several counties in southwestern Ontario. It is not known whether Scots pine must be present to enable pine shoot beetle to reach populations high enough to damage healthy trees of other pine species.
Research is ongoing.
The pine shoot beetle has the ability to cause whole tree mortality in only two years. The pine shoot beetle can create its own brood material by first attacking the shoots of a healthy tree. This shoot attack stresses and weakens the tree, allowing the beetle to overcome the tree defenses and then breed in the main stem. This eventually results in the death of the tree. This demonstrated ability makes all stands of pine a potential candidate for attack by the pine shoot beetle.