[5] T. piniperda is black or dark brown, 3.5–4.8 mm long, with a cylindrical body, rounded at the head and abdomen ends.

The adults tunnel a breeding gallery in the spring, up to 25 cm (9.8 in) long, parallel to the wood grain where they lay their eggs.

On hatching, the larvae chew through the phloem radially from the gallery for several months, emerging as new adults in late summer.

[2] In late winter to early spring, when daily high temperatures exceed 10–13 °C (50–55 °F), adults initiate flight from their overwintering sites and seek breeding material as a host, including recently cut pine trees, logs, branches, and stumps.

[3][9] Historically, these species were often not distinguished from T. piniperda, but they are reproductively isolated, which has consequences for pest control.

[10] One method of attack that adults employ is to aggregate in the tree crowns first and then infest the trunk for breeding.

[7] For either method of attack, colonisation success depends on the degree of tree resistance that the beetles encounter.

[10] Unlike most bark beetles, Tomicus piniperda does not use pheromones for pre-beeding association and pairing, but instead hones in on the resin scent emitted by damaged specimens of the host species, including storm-fallen Scots pines.

T. piniperda is able to recognize smells while still in flight by means of olfaction of several different plant monoterpenes evaporating from wound resin.

[11] Their mass aggregation in these pines is due to their ability to respond swiftly to monoterpenes that are released from injuries to the trees.

[12] While T. piniperda causes damage to various pine species throughout Northern Europe, trees in the Mediterranean are especially vulnerable and may even be killed.

Furthermore, the intra-group distances of the two haplotypic groups are compatible with intra-specific variation commonly observed in insects.

[3] Within one month of the initial sighting, five new states reported finding T. piniperda, including Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York, and Illinois.

[14] As a precautionary step to help protect pine plantations, a United States federal quarantine was introduced in 1992 in the northeast and north-midwest, regulating movement of pine logs and bark, nursery stock, and Christmas trees from infested to uninfested areas, and a similar quarantine brought in to cover part of southeast Canada in 1993 by the Canadian authorities.

[8] Visual surveys were administered in late summer and autumn to locate the beetles' shoot-feeding damage.

Interception data helps to narrow the screening process when working with this beetle that occurs over a wide geographic range.

[8] A single T. piniperda adult found during inspection can make it impossible for producers of Christmas trees to fulfill their contracts.

[15] One of the best methods used to control these insects is to use a summer foliar spray alongside the destruction of brood logs and trees during May.