Question

  I'm in York, Pa and just recently noticed these red "rubbery feeling" spikes coming out of the willow trunk. It's all the way up the entire tree. The willow's about 3 yrs old.

Answer
These are the frass from a borer (beetle) that has infested the trunk. About all that can be done is spray the trunk with an insecticide called Merit or Onyx. But with this many infestations on a trunk the chance of survival  is not good.  Borers attack trees under stress so after you treat the tree I would fertilize the tree with 1 lb of 10-10-10 fertilizer per inch of trunk diameter. Scatter the fertilize around the tree and water in good.