what's 'bugging' me

I had some garden pictures sent to me be a friend who read my garden blog, I thought I would share...

She called this, "The Three Amigos".

She has grapes! I also love the Lillies in the front.

Red leaf lettuce, I wish I had planted some this year.

I'm still trying to deal with the poison ivy. I've tried alcohol (rubbing, I don't drink:-), hydrogen Peroxide, Lanasil, tea tree, hand sanitizer, and I finally found something that kind of stops the itch, it's a natural salve made by Mountain Rose Herbs for hemorrhoids. (left over from child birth!) I went to the web site and found they have something made especially for poison Ivy! I've ordered it, I'll give a report when I get it! Click on the picture to see all the wonderful things they have.

Now to the garden. I have been doing research on how to get pests away naturally. I have read many different suggestions. One was to spray a mixture of ivory (I don't have ivory, does it have to be that?) soap and cayenne pepper diluted in water. It has to sit in the bottle overnight. So I started that yesterday. I also read that if I dusted the plants with flour the bugs who eat will explode from the flour in their system mixing with the liquids, so I did that yesterday too.
I think this little guy is the main culprit.
He is a jumping beetle and I've found him on all the plants that have been chewed on. Some call him a potato beetle. He's as big as a pin head and does hop around. He's not impossible to catch though, so we do a lot of hunting and squishing.

The cabbage may also be suffering from a larva. Although I've only found one so far. It may be through this winged creature. It was described as a small white moth/butterfly.

This morning Bill discovered some welts on our cauliflower plants, I'm wondering if the spray may be causing it. Wouldn't it be nifty if I killed one plant to save another??

We sprayed anyway, just went easy on the cauliflower. As soon as it dried I dusted them with flour. If hand pecking, spraying and dusting doesn't work I may have to spend $25 and try this: (click on pic to see where to buy). Unless anyone else has any ideas.....?
I found a squash this morning that had both a male and a female flower:
I used my finger and tried to use them to cross pollinate the other squashes. I felt kind of 'dirty' doing it, I've never had to artificially inseminate plants before.

These are some of my 'naked' tomato plants, I got pretty agressive in trimming yesterday.