[3] Adult beetles hibernate in forest litter and host trees when environmental conditions are not favorable for reproduction.

Once the host is located, the adult burrows through the weakened bark in order to build tunnels where they can mate and lay eggs.

Some scientists hypothesize that long-distance movements originating from the Iberian Peninsula may have contributed to their invasion of northern Norway spruce forests.

[6] Movements like this can happen when various environmental factors such as severe storms, drought, or mass fungal infections damage or kill host trees.

[7] Healthy trees use defenses by producing resin or latex, which might contain several insecticidal and fungicidal compounds that kill or injure attacking insects.

[9] Other researchers argue that the beetle populations that have evolved in such regions have an active, directed host searching ability and are not equipped for long-range dispersal.

[8] Some scientists consider this beetle to be a keystone species,[4] in part because it has an unusually high number of relationships with other organisms in the community and because it changes its environment so drastically.

One of the most damaging is a species of blue stain fungus, Ophiostoma polonicum, which can kill healthy trees by hindering the upward flow of water, wilting its foliage.

[3] The results of such beetle outbreaks could be devastating for the lumber industry in that area because of the amount of time required for natural regression to take place.

Trees that have been attacked are easy to recognize by concentrations of brown dust from bark at the basal areas of stems and trunks.

[12] Interventions for beetle outbreaks are controversial in locations such as the Šumava National Park in the Bohemian Forest of the Czech Republic.

[4] Some experts argue that salvage logging tends to have a greater negative effect on the vegetation than the bark beetle outbreak alone.