Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: Dead leader on serbian spruce, 1 by pdools_NJ

pdools_NJ wrote:
In mid-July I noticed the leading tip of my Serbian Spruce turn brown and lose it's needles- we had a bad hot spell followed by a great deal of rain and so I attributed it to bad weather. Within about 2 weeks, the branch had died back from 6 inches to about 18 inches, so I immediately cut it back to healthy wood. Fortunately when I bought the tree, it had two leaders- I had always meant to cut the weaker one back and now I'm so glad I didn't.

I've read where this tip die-back can be attributed to certain moth larva, but when I inspected the branch, it was covered with these white blotches. The blotches were sticky, but not runny. I'm trying to determine if this is some type of critter or is it a mold/mildew thing. Please see attached photo...I'm trying to determine my next course of action for the new leader.

Many thanks for any and all input,

Patrick