The larvae of P. polonica are sessile parasites living on the roots of various herbs – especially those of the perennial knawel (Polish: czerwiec trwały) – growing on the sandy soils of Central Europe and other parts of Eurasia.

Before the development of aniline, alizarin, and other synthetic dyes, the insect was of great economic importance, although its use was in decline after the introduction of Mexican cochineal to Europe in the 16th century.

At this point, the larvae undergo ecdysis, shedding their exoskeletons together with their legs and antennae, and they encyst by forming outer protective coatings (cysts) within the root tissues.

In late June or early July, females, which are neotenous and retain their larval form, re-emerge from the ground and slowly climb to the top of the host plant, where they wait until winged adult males, with characteristic plumes at the end of their abdomens, leave the cocoons and join them a few days later.

Male imagines (adult insects) do not feed and die shortly after mating, while their female counterparts return underground to lay eggs.

[1] The larvae were killed with boiling water or vinegar and dried in the sun or in an oven, ground, and dissolved in sourdough or in light rye beer called kvass[8] in order to remove fat.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, along with grain, timber, and salt, it was one of Poland's chief exports, mainly to southern Germany and northern Italy as well as to France, England, the Ottoman Empire, and Armenia.

[7] With the partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century, vast markets in Russia and Central Asia opened to Polish cochineal, which became an export product again – this time, to the East.

In the 19th century, Bukhara, Uzbekistan, became the principal Polish cochineal trading center in Central Asia; from there the dye was shipped to Kashgar in Xinjiang, and Kabul and Herat in Afghanistan.

[1] In 1731, Johann Philipp Breyne, wrote Historia naturalis Cocci Radicum Tinctorii quod polonicum vulgo audit (translated into English during the same century), the first major treatise about the insect, including the results of his research on its physiology and life cycle.

[citation needed] The historical importance of the Polish cochineal is still reflected in most modern Slavic languages where the words for the color red and for the month of June both derive from the Proto-Slavic *čьrvь (probably pronounced [t͡ʃĭrwĭ]), meaning "a worm" or "larva".