what is wrong with blue spruce

pscallan

Any insight into what could be wrong with this spruce would be helpful. The bottom half of the inside branches have moss and have lost most of the needles. the tips with the new growth have turned brown. thank you in advance for your help!

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Brent Ferris

It looks like adelges cooleyi the spruce gall adelgid. Difficult to be sure without a closeup of the dying ends. The ends should look vaguely like a small cone. Once you see the dying end, the insects have left that part, You need to find similar growths on live branch tips that look like branch enlargements., Pesticide treatment is possible, but snipping the ends of the affected branch, and disposing of the ends works just as well -- if it is not a big tree -- and better for the tree and your environment, Adelges seldom kills a tree, but does make it look unsightly, and does reduce its vigour.

Moss, or more likely lichen, on the inside of the tree is seldom anything to worry about (pic needed), and having needles fall off the branches on the inside of the tree is usually normal - not enough light to support them.


[URL=Adelges cooleyi (Phylloxeridae) - the Cooley spruce gall adelgid[/URL]

Could also be the Woolly Hemlock Adelgid (Adelges tsugae)

pscallan

thank you so much for your feedback! the ends of the tree do look vaguely like a small cone. I will try the treatment you suggested w/out the pesticides. The tree has had this condition for several years from what I understand. Again, thank you for your quick and kind response which pretty much describes what is happening with the tree.