Some kind of bug infestation in young maple tree?

[apb042]

We have had this maple for ~2 years, and a few weeks ago I noticed that the bark was splitting all around the trunk near the bottom. The leaves had started dying as well. At first I thought it was just stress from a long period of extreme heat/dryness we'd had, but when I started probing around the splits in the bark it started peeling off. Underneath was a layer of crumbly brown dead stuff. From one of the splits a couple of small greyish beetles ran out, didn't get a good look but maybe they are what's causing the problem?

There are also these white bumpy things under the bark where it doesn't appear to be dead yet. I wasn't sure if those were some kind of larvae from the bugs, or vascular tissue so I left it alone. As you can see these dead patches cover almost the whole trunk (at least near the bottom), and basically all the leaves are dead or seem to be dying. Is it worth calling an arborist or is my tree a lost cause?

 

[old CB]

Hard to tell from the photo & description exactly what's going on with your tree. The lower photo looks like there was mechanical damage to the tree--as in scraped by a lawnmower, weedwhacker, or similar. The bugs are likely opportunists that converged after the tree was damaged. Me, I'd be inclined to just watch and see if it greens up again in the spring (actually you can do a "thumbnail check" of the bark during winter--scratch to see if there's green in the bark) and then replace if the tree is not doing well.

 

[Woodanhor]

Looks like the tree is in a well or walled in?

 

[apb042]

Thanks for the replies. There's a watering bag around it, maybe that's what you're seeing.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

What's the diameter of that tree?
Can we see photo of the base of the trunk, leaves removed?
Maybe a photo of the entire tree?
I'm no expert, but it looks bad to me.