These orange dots are filled with fungal spores that are carried to the alternate host, where it develops during the summer. Spores from the currants re-infect healthy pines. The disease spreads rapidly up and down the tree, killing the branches and the main trunk. Prune out cankered branches and excise stem cankers by removing bark at least 4 inches above and below, and 2 inches on either side of discolored bark. The disease deforms or kills trees, suppressing the height and growth of survivors.
Death is more often due to multiple branch infections than to girdling trunk lesions.
Diseased bark turns dark reddish brown, and the underlying sapwood is light yellowish brown or darker where infiltrated with resin. Resin-soaked wood beneath cankers may extend to the pith. Resin usually exudes from the lesion and may run down the bark or drip on the needles. Needles on girdled branches turn yellow, then brown. Dead needles, glued in place by crystallized resin, often hang from killed shoots for more than a year, slowly weathering to a dull, grayish brown.