I'm hesitant about the treatment for a few reasons. One, it sounds like I'm a bit late in the cycle for it to work. Two, the tree is 15-20 feet high and I'm daunted by the task of spraying it. Three, I don't know much about horticultural oil, and I use "organic" approaches. Spraying this tree would involve a lot of drift (onto me too); could it hurt other nearby plants or me? What brand should I look for? I have a sprayer, but it's not professional grade. If I don't have to have perfect coverage I could probably do it. But if every one of those burrs needs to be covered in oil, then I'm skeptical I could do the job right. Brandon is right that I'm not *especially* attached to the tree, but I'm also working with the ol "cost/benefit" analysis here.

Here with our cool summers and mild winters it's primarily bugs. Spruces and true firs are very commonly planted, yet seldom attractive once they have been in place long enough to have been noticeably diminished by insect and mite attacks. A funny thing is how many true firs grow for some time - perhaps decades - and then go to pot rather quickly. Many yards have the native Abies amabilis, as with A. lasiocarpa these may live to grow 20 or 30 feet high but seldom taller. Even lowland native, swamp-dwelling Sitka spruce planted on normal soils in the Puget Trough may grow fairly big but often looks terrible, gaunt and riddled with galls. On the outer coast and in the mountain foothills, where precipitation is considerably greater the gauntness and galls are not much evident.

Not unless they were mismarked (highly possible at the big box places). If you live around Knoxville, I can hook you up with a good source. If not, maybe someone from your area will know of a good place to buy them. BTW, if you go with Green Giant Thujas, don't waste money buying big ones. If you get some in 1 gallon pots (healthy and not rootbound) and some others in 5 or 10 gallon pots and plant them in the same soil at the same time, the 1 gallon plants will catch up to the larger ones in just a few years. This happens to some degree with most types of shrubs and trees, but is especially noticeable with the faster growing types like Leyland Cypress and Giant Green Thujas.

You will likely have to sacrifice some branch tips. Thing is, super-vigorous species-it will soon compensate. Read up on the full control regimen though. You may want to do the oil thing (at the appropriate time) and knock this population down. It's not hard, just a bit more involved than the immediate removal of the galls. Too great a tree species to have such an annoying pest mess up!