In the Sacred Woods Temple, where I live at [Damanhur}(http://www.damanhur.org), unfortunately the gall wasps are destroying our chestnut trees. They have no natural enemies because they were imported in from China. When they form their gall, they use the tree, which weakens to to other diseases, such as the Chestnut cancer. After many years of treatment with one of the gall wasp enemies, we have finally been able to control the problem, but they still show up here and there. Hopefully, the oak gall wasp does not hurt the tree!
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in the natural setting, oak gall wasps do not do any appreciable damage to the oak trees. The most damage that is caused is actually by squirrels who strip the bark from branches to eat the larvae before the galls form. This can sometimes girdle a branch (remove the bark all the way around it in a strip) which can damage or even kill a branch - but even in this case, it is minor damage to the tree overall (losing a small twig). Oak gall wasps are considered to be serious pests in the nursery setting where people are growing oak trees for commercial sale, as the cosmetic damage there can make a tree unsaleable.
I wonder if the chestnut gall wasp is different because it is imported? I know that this particular gall wasp does not affect American chestnut trees, only the ones native to our areas in Europe.