Brown worms on pinus contorta 'spanns dwarf'

Shortly after my large order (13 conifers) arrived this year, I noticed one brown worm, about 3/4" long, on my pinus contorta 'spaans dwarf.' I picked the worm off immediately, very carefully inspected the tree, as well as the whole shipment. By the time, I had already potted most of the order to decide where to plant what, and I then planted the 'spaans dwarf' quite a ways from the others. That was in late April, about a month ago.

Well, since then I've kind of been watching the 'spaans dwarf' very carefully. Whereas everyone else pushed their new growth and looked very happy, this little outcast has been pretty slow to do much of anything. Last week, a few of the needles started browning, which raised my suspicions even more. I sprayed it, and a few trees near it, with a multipurpose thing I bought from a local nursery, from the owner who swore up and down that the spray would not have any ill effects. It was already premixed and seemed foolproof. Well, everything else continued to do well, but the 'spaans dwarf' seemed not to be doing much of anything - good or bad. The emerging new needles on one candle in particular seemed frozen in time. Most of the needles looked fine, but that one candle was really irking me. So today, I kind of poked at it, and it fell right off, and there was a nasty BROWN WORM mocking me from in there. I grabbed my garden shears and trimmed down about an inch further to make sure I would get the entire worm out, and threw the piece into the grill fire (hubby was not happy). I trimmed off a few more suspicious pieces, but did not find any evidence of more worms, and I sprayed the heck out of the tree again. As hindsight is 20/20, I now realize I should have taken a picture of the worm. It looked identical to the one I saw a month ago on the same tree, but of course that does not help anyone else much :)

Anyone have any ideas of what I am up against? I was pretty angry, and ready to just yank the whole tree up and send that into the grill fire as well. Hubby would have been REALLY unhappy with me at that point! However, it is a pretty nice little tree, even after its haircut (I know this one is supposed to be kind of funky, so I justified it by telling myself I'm just improving its appearance). The parts that I trimmed were all at least 1/3 browning, and the candles not doing anything, I cut less than 10% from the tree. I googled "brown worms" and "pine" but have not yet come across anything helpful. Half of the order is potted, so they are really easy to watch, and I have not seen any evidence on anything else I ordered to indicated that there was an infestation beyond this one tree. Now I'm just nervous that I should not let the tree remain in the garden. It was $45, so I would not feel like it is the worst thing in the world if you guys tell me to rip it out.

Suggestions, please...

Elizabeth

Pine Shoot Moth

Resin

Thanks Resin, I did trim all the new shoots and tossed them into the fire yesterday, even before I read this and googled "pine shoot moth". Looks like that was about all I can do for this time of year. If we have a winter next year like we did this year, that should kill any leftover larvae.

Elizabeth

Here is an update for everyone.

Pine shoot moth...that must have been it. I got up Wednesday morning, saw a small moth on the back porch when I let the dogs out...and promptly ran around in my pj's to the front of the house. Pulled the 'spaans dwarf' out of its spot, threw it in the garbage, and half an hour later it was hauled off to the dump. When I looked at in the morning after the haircut, it looked horrible anyway, not something I want in a prime position in the front of my house. I will spray everyone again as a preventative after it stops stinking raining, has been cold and rainy all week.

Elizabeth