Linden Trees Have Mites - Nail Galls on Leaves - June 2023

I went out to do a little bit of late Spring/early Summer pruning on the pair of espaliered Greenspire Linden trees in our backyard and noticed something unusual on some of the leaves.  There were these redish/yellow growths that were stuck to the face of some of the leaves.  I first noticed this below:

Then, a closer look revealed that certain leaves were covered in these galls:

What the heck?  

I went to the Web to discover that these are gall mites.  Mites!  

After reading more, it turns out that they don't affect the tree's health.  From the Royal Horticulture Society:

Like most gall mite there is no harm done to the hosts overall heath and vigour and these animals are part of the biodiversity that healthy trees support.

Even knowing that...I still don't like them.  Not one bit. 

I went in with a pair of scissors and started to prune out every one of the leaves filled with these galls.  I clipped them off and tossed them in our trash.  

A few years back, I discovered these same trees were covered in Aphids and began to treat them.   The past few years (and just last month), I've applied a systemic root treatment for Aphids and other pests.  Turns out, there's a separate one that deals with mites.  Off I go to the orange big box store to pick up a bottle of this stuff.