It's hard to determine what caused the bark loss and holes in the photos. Sometimes wood-boring insects attack trees that have been stressed (such as from our ongoing drought) or injured, but the foliage appearing to be in good condition suggests that whatever is going on isn't too advanced. There are some bark beetles that use pines as their host plants, though they tend to be more numerous when infesting trees than the photos suggest. If borers are present, there are no effective treatments once they're inside the wood. (The product you mention uses imidacloprid as the active ingredient. That and other chemicals in the neonicotinoid class of insecticides are illegal for the general public to purchase and apply outdoors in Maryland; only certified pesticide applicators can use them, out of concern for harmful exposure to pollinators.)

For now, just continue to monitor the plant for watering needs, as we are still well behind on rainfall. Feel the soil around six inches deep and water thoroughly when it becomes somewhat dry to the touch at that depth.

Does the pine get full sun in summer (6-8 or more hours of direct light daily)? If not, it might not be vigorous and as resilient to stress unless it can be moved to a sunnier spot. The foliage we can see in the photos appears to be quite sparse, and suggests that the tree is either struggling from not enough sun or some other factor.

Miri

Thanks so much. the tree gets full sun and there is nothing to shade it. Foliage being sparse is the result of fall needles plucking and attempts to perform niwaki style pruning to the tree to maintain its sculpted shape. This is the tree is April, wish I had a photo from fall, but in the fall before I needlessly plucked it looked similar to this.

Are you saying that if beetles are i side , the tree won’t have a chance to survive since there are no effective treatments?

Thanks so much. the tree gets full sun and there is nothing to shade it. Foliage being sparse is the result of fall needles plucking and attempts to perform niwaki style pruning to the tree to maintain its sculpted shape. This is the tree is April, wish I had a photo from fall, but in the fall before I needlessly plucked it looked similar to this.

Are you saying that if beetles are i side , the tree won’t have a chance to survive since there are no effective treatments?

Excessive pruning and leaf removal can stress plants (even though we acknowledge that is a key component of special treatments of bonsai and related arts), so that might be contributing to the pine's vulnerability to insect or disease attack. Wood-boring insects can tunnel into different tissues depending on the insect species; some feed in the cambium (the live layer of wood just under the bark, which moves water up and sap back and forth), while others feed more in heartwood (central wood in the trunk and branches, which is naturally already dead). Given that, not all borers cause serious damage, though most do target stressed trees preferentially over healthy, vigorous trees. Borers that damage cambium will be much more of a threat to plant health because the plant won't necessarily be able to regenerate those lost tissues.

You could have a certified arborist or licensed tree expert evaluate the tree if you'd like, as they might see something we can't assess through photos. They can't cure or treat every condition, but might be able to narrow-down a diagnosis, plus look for sources of tree stress in its environment that might be able to be alleviated. When insecticide is warranted for borer control, they are applied to the bark to prevent a new generation of adult insects (often beetles, sawflies, or moths) of laying eggs that will hatch and then tunnel into the wood. Sometimes predatory insect-targeting nematodes can be used to kill borers inside their tunnels, but it's a less reliable method and might not reach certain types of borers. In addition, some borers (like ambrosia beetles, which probably isn't what you're observing here) introduce wood-infecting fungi into their tunnels, so even successful beetle control would not resolve the wood decay that would result, which is untreatable.

Your situation doesn't look that dire, but it's hard to tell for certain what type of borer (if any) is present. Sometimes Yellow-bellied Sapsucker woodpeckers will peck round holes in tree and shrub trunks (they tend to prefer some plant species over others), and if they "test peck" a few holes and find it unsatisfactory, they can move on. We can't rule-out that these depressions are woodpecker holes, though usually sapsuckers create more holes in a distinctive horizontal pattern that doesn't appear to be the case here. Those woodpeckers are not going after insects inside the wood like other woodpeckers might, so if they are present, it doesn't necessarily mean that borers are a problem.

Miri

You're welcome!