Wood-boring insects are not often treatable once they have entered the wood. You could consult with a certified arborist or licensed tree expert that can help try to determine which species of borer is present, as their life cycles differ. If an insecticide were both effective to try and warranted (that is, too much damage to the sapwood hasn't already taken place to make treatment useless), then you might need hired help to apply it, as not all systemic pesticide ingredients are legal for the general public to use in Maryland. Which pesticide approach is used, if any, will depend on the species of borer, as they tunnel in different ways and not all insecticide chemicals will be capable of moving into the type of wood they are feeding in. Beetle larvae and moth larvae are two insect groups that typically are responsible for wood-boring damage, though a few other insects can also bore into wood.

In ornamental cherries, peachtree borers (two species) are among the common culprits. Treatment usually revolves around monitoring when the adult moths are active with pheromone traps and spraying the trunks with a pesticide that would kill or discourage adults from laying eggs on the bark. Such chemicals are not specific to this species and could potentially harm beneficial insects as well. Usually, borers like these target trees already under stress, even if symptoms of that stress are subtle, and they could either be wounded (such as from weed-whacker damage to the bark), suffering from overly-wet soil damaging roots, or stressed by drought. Other possibilities for insect-produced sawdust are Ambrosia Beetle or bark beetle larvae. Neither of those borers are treatable once infesting a trunk.

Miri