It is a small brown moth mainly found in North America, specifically New Brunswick, Quebec, and the north-eastern United States.

[6] As a result, much research is being conducted into control methods for the spruce bud moth, including the use of sex pheromones in traps and annual pesticide sprays.

The spruce bud moth is generally found in colder regions of the country, as their ovipositing and mating behaviors are highly temperature dependent.

[2] Studies have shown that on average, females lay just over 30 eggs total in their lifetime, and that ovipositing occurs approximately 6–7 days after they emerge as adults.

When larvae develop into prepupae, they fall from the spruce bud shoot onto the ground and stay in that stage for 6 days.

The wasp begins parasitizing 14 days following the start of the process of hatching of the larvae and continues for around a month afterward.

This pheromone can be synthesized and is being used as a pest control method to trap spruce bud moths.

However, males secrete accessory gland proteins alongside spermatophores that can prevent females from re-mating.

They begin as brown and by the time they reach the fourth-instar stage, they transition to a light yellow color.

Adult spruce bud moths have dark wings and a wingspan of half an inch.

[6] Zeiraphera canadensis has caused a high incidence of multiple and abnormal leaders in white spruce in the Maritime provinces, Quebec, and Maine.

[13] However, although severe feeding damage has seldom been extensive in forests, new shoots on open-grown white spruce are frequently disfigured.

Attempts to use Trichogramma wasps to parasitize and kill eggs before they hatch have been largely unsuccessful, so at present, suggestions for spruce bud moth control include spraying with pesticides at strategic intervals, including during late July when ovipositioning occurs and the following year in early May when the eggs hatch into larvae.