The name for the disease comes from the distinctive “witches broom”, commonly yellow in color,[3] which forms on the spruce after young needles have been infected.

Management must be carried out through physical or mechanical methods, such as the pruning of brooms or the removal of the secondary host from the area, because no chemical control measures (e.g. fungicides) have yet been determined to be economically effective.

[4] This host is also sometimes referred to as kinnikinnick, which is the Native American name for common bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), which is in the family Ericaceae.

The number of brooms as well as their proximity to the main stem can also play a role in determining the extent of the damage to the tree.

[11] Eventually, these aecia rupture and release millions of microscopic, orange aeciospores, which are carried to bearberry by wind.

[12] Assuming favorable, moist environmental conditions upon the secondary host, these aeciospores germinate and the bearberry's leaves develop dark purple-brown blotches.

[11] Teliospores are produced by these telia and germinate to become basidiospores, which infect the primary spruce host when wind carries them to young, developing needles.

[14] It was then experimentally proved that when bearberry were inoculated in a moist chamber with aeciospores from spruce brooms, telia would begin to form.

Pruning of brooms is the most effective and economical control option while still reducing the risk of stem breakage and maintaining tree vigor.

A related control measure would be to attempt to reduce moisture around the bearberry in order to prevent secondary infection, but the logistics of this would also be challenging.

Many spruce trees do not exhibit any symptoms of disease upon infection by Chrysomyxa arctostaphyli, and still many others display effects of a merely cosmetic nature.

[12] As the infection continues to grow and more sections of the tree die, new entrance ways open up for wood decaying fungi, such as red ring rot (Phellinus pini).

[12] Additionally, this internal wood decay causes spruce trees to become structurally unstable, posing relevant hazards in residential and recreational areas.

Oftentimes squirrels, fishers, and other forest animals utilize cavities within brooms, especially those carved out by other wood decaying fungi, as sources of shelter and dens.