What's eating my serbian spruce?

Serbian Spruce is generally pest-resistant but shares the spruce family's vulnerability to spruce aphid, which can cause dramatic inner-needle drop in late winter. Spruce gall adelgid produces distinctive galls at shoot tips. Spider mites flare in dry summers. Deer occasionally browse the lower blue-green foliage in winter.

Rapid needle loss from inside the canopy in late winter; needles pale then fall; severe in mild wet winters Pyrethroid or imidacloprid spray in autumn; monitor with sticky traps from November; neem oil for mild attacks

Pineapple-like galls at base of new shoots; distorted tips; galls turn brown and persist on branches Prune out galls before adults emerge; imidacloprid drench or horticultural oil spray in early spring

Stippled, bronzed needles; fine webbing in branch axils; worst during summer drought Increase irrigation to reduce water stress; neem oil or miticide spray; predatory mites for contained settings