I picked off as many as I could on the trees and bagged them up. hopefully this will help.

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zzzuoh, same problem occurs here, it's some type of aphid or mealy bug induced gall. You can spray with an insecticidal soap or pick them off or just leave it to mother nature. Some years are worse than others for this affliction, but it's usually more than of an unsightly nuisance than anything.

Probably eastern spruce gall aphid-actually an aphid-like organism called an adelgid. Both life cycle and treatment are complicated subjects, which nevertheless can be tackled, but in the interest of bandwidth, I'd urge you to look this entity up on this very web, and see if there's any aspect of it you want to do yourself. Some fairly common spray materials like dormant oils, etc. can be of use, so it's not as if this is some unattainable thing. Just do your reading first-Morton Arboretum's web pages are a good place to begin-and then get back to us if there's any sticking points.

the trees seems to be fine- but some are a bit more unsightly with more galls than others.

Wow-gypsy moth ate spruce? Back when we had our big invasion, we found that momma moth loved to lay her eggs on spruce trees, but we sure never saw any feeding activity on those. Must be a bad infestation. Ours was too, but not quite that bad I guess.

OUCH, I've never seen infestation to that degree and now better understand your concern. Yes, might be too late to do anything other than to be prepared for next year and to have your trees sprayed accordingly.

My region is rather severely affected by spruce budworm and unfortunately, seldom is spraying undertaken and trees often left unsightly and to die a slow death in some cases.

some norways have no galls while others more so. seems every year its something new. kinda takes the fun out of it. I always thought Norways were the one spruce I could depend on. blue spruce seem to be on the decline in the region , mine are still fine but I won't plant anymore, and red pine are pretty much toast all over, and yes I never knew gypsy moth caterpillars would eat spruce until I found out the hard way last year after they destroyed a few baker spruce I had to cut down because of it. Lets not forget the pine weevil-eating the leaders off the spruce too.

As for Ken's questions, last winter was the winter from hell for snowfall here in Mass. not sure that would affect the Norways though. this winter was the opposite- almost no snow and very mild. We had one snap of record breaking cold that lasted about a week though. I planted them around 6 years ago. These are along my driveway -while others in the front of house seem to be unaffected. But are surrounded by many green giants which seem to be quickly over taking the locations in spots and I ma have to thin the heard to give the spruce some more elbow room.

"seems every year its something new. kinda takes the fun out of it" ... yes, indeed more and more insects and diseases to contend with. Oh, and we have the dreaded tent caterpillars advancing their march towards us and we'll see an increasing yearly infestation until the buggers become so vast in numbers that they totally deplete their food supply and starve themselves out before having the chance to pupate.

I'll try to take some pics of the trees after I plucked most off of them to get an evaluation from others more knowledgable than me.

I'd still rate Norway spruce as easily the most culture-friendly of spruce, not to mention the one with greatest overall appeal. Of course, that should surprise no-one-that I believe so!

Have had white pine shoot tip moth decimate some exceptionally fine new leaders on NS up at my plantation. One of nearly four feet was flopped on its side a few weeks later.....grrrr! But in truth, this is no more than a minor setback-these trees will readily re-leader and be on their way once again. Seems like the soil I've got up there must be ideal for pine-family stuff-growth has been impressive.

zz, even if all you did was prune out the sections with galls while they're in their green stage, so prune out in June and early July-and burned that stuff to kill the soon-to-emerge adults, it would do some good. As far as how to prune a Norway spruce, lol, really a few variables-where on main branch or side branches are galls located? If there's a sort of side branch a bit back on the branch, that's a good spot to cut back to, that sort of thing. Quite doable if within reach and not too much.

If further treatment is desired, there are options with hort. oil and a range of insecticides that can work.

I am in MA also, and it was really bad last year, and looks to be equally as bad this year. This damage is actually being caused by two things: cankerworm and winter moth. The bad news is that the new growth on Norway spruce is their favorite feast for conifers. They like the deciduous trees better, but will not pass up a meal of fresh Norway growth. They just about stripped the top of my 'Gold Drift' last year. I was totally unprepared, never saw anything like this on a conifer. Oh yea, Mugo pine is the only other conifer they like better than my norways. They did tremendous damage to my 15yr old Mugo that had never been attacked before. No joke, you can hear them crunching on the ends of the needles. They even eat the mature needles on the Mugo

They are back in full force again this year. I'm testing out out Safer brand Bacillus thuringiensis. Hope it works. The 'Gold Drift' recovered nicely this year, but I don't know if it can take another year in a row of attacks!

June 2015

May 2016

https://ag.umass.edu/fact-sheets/winter-moth-overview

SC77 you are saying winter moth is responsible for the gall outbreak too? man I hate those things more & more everyday. Does it ever end with those things? I've had a lot going on house-wise last year and this year so I probably missed a lot of signs last year. this is the tree today- looks healthy with most galls plucked off.

@zzuoh - Nope,I was the replying to the comments about gypsy moth & winter moth damage. I've actually never heard of or seen spruce gall. However, as with any pest or infection, it leaves the plant more vulnerable to further attacks from other pests, diseases.

I also I agree with Tom that despite these issues, Norway's are still the most bulletproof conifer for our area. Even better than are native white pine, in my opinion