In southern Africa it is a pest of the black wattle (Acacia mearnsii) which is grown largely as a source of vegetable tannin.

Like all members of the family Psychidae, the male larva develops into an adult in a mobile silken bag covered with materials such as thorns and twigs.

The larva spins a silken thread on which it may float along on the breeze, much as some species of young spiderlings use gossamer for ballooning in their dispersive phase.

The young caterpillar does not feed for a day or two after hatching, but eventually, once the dispersive phase is completed, it begins to weave a conical bag of silk, incorporating fragments of plant material such as leaves, twigs and bark.

Oviposition starts immediately afterwards, sometimes even before insemination, and in mid- or late winter successful females produces on average about 1600 eggs.

This relatively large clutch size reflects the fact that on average only a few of the larvae survive to reproduce.

The rest either starve, or settle down in the tree where they hatched which is likely to die from defoliation within a few seasons if natural or artificial controls do not prevent it.

In the wild probably the most important insect enemy of Kotochalia junodi is an interesting parasitoid wasp, a member of the Ichneumonidae, Sericopimpla sericata.

The bagworm wriggles and contorts within the bag to avoid attack, but as a rule the female wasp succeeds in stinging it sooner or later.

[2] The bagworm routinely infests the large local wattle plantations, which cover more than half a million acres (2,000 km2) in South Africa, primarily in Natal.