Question
I HAVE FOUR QUESTIONS:
I RECENTLY (10/27/08) HAD MY OAK TREES TRIMMED AND THE CREW USED CLIMBING SPIKES. I NOW UNDERSTAND THIS WAS PROBABLY NOT A GOOD IDEA.
(1) AM I OK BECAUSE OF THE TIME OF YEAR?
(2) IF NOT IS THERE ANYTHING I SHOULD DO TO PROTECT THE TREES SUCH AS APPLY PAINT OR PRUNING SEALER TO THE WOUNDS I CAN REACH?
(3) IN THE PAST WHENEVER I PRUNED A BRANCH MYSELF, I WOULD ALWAYS COVER THE WOUND WITH ORTHO PRUNING SEALER. HOWEVER I READ SOMEWHERE THAT THIS IS NOT NECESSARY AND THAT THE TREE WOULD BE BETTER OFF LEFT WITH THE BARE WOUND TO HEAL ON ITS OWN. IS THIS TRUE?
(4) IF COVERING WOUNDS WITH SOMETHING IS PREFERABLE TO LEAVING THEM BARE, IS THERE ANY PREFERRED CHOICE OF MATERIAL BETWEEN A COMMERCIAL PRUNING SEALER, AN OIL BASED PAINT, OR A LATEX PAINT?

Answer
It is never good to use spikes on  a tree no matter what time of the year. The climber digs the spikes into the tree bark/trunk.  Because spikes damage the tree bark, climbing spikes should never be used on any tree you are trying to save.  Climbing spikes may be used on a tree being removed.  

I would not use any Tree service that uses spikes to prune trees.

Now the damage has been done and these small wounds will heal over themselves without any wound dressing. Wounds heal better withiout the dressing since these may damage the cells around the wound.

Don't spoil your proper pruning job by coating the wounds with tree paint or wound dressing.  After over 13 years of wood dressing research, Dr. Shigo and Dr. Shortle concluded that these paints do nothing to prevent decay and little or nothing to promote wound closure.

Some of them do reduce wood discoloration, but discoloration is not necessarily equal to decay.  Wound dressings tested included bituminous and asphalt based paints (typical commercial tree paints), orange shellac, rosin acid and styrene butadiene combinations, sucrose (sugar) and even aspirin.  Insect entry is not prevented by tree wound paints.  Insects will still bore into dying wood above and below the wound-dressed area.  Treating with wound dressings is mainly cosmetic in effect.  Although information of this nature has been published since the 1930's, it has been largely ignored until recently.

To quote from Dr. Shigo, "If pruning cuts are made properly, there is no need for a dressing.  If cuts are made improperly, dressings will not help." [Journal of Arboriculture, 9(12): December, 1983.]  A proper cut takes no longer to make than an improper cut, but the consequence for the tree can be significant.