Dern things popped up seemingly over night. Little striped ones about 1/4" long.
And on top of that something about the diameter of a #2 pencil has bored holes
in the top of the nearly ripe ones.

Use Dipel. It's all natural bacteria that kills caterpillars.

Thanks Fur. I tried some "oils" (peppermint,garlic,thyme,etc) that was supposed to kill
caterpillars. It did not. I think because them little sucker was hiding on the under side
of the leaves. I've pulled a bunch off.

FF, Does Dipel contain Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)? Is that the same as can be use to control wax moths on stored Bee frames?

Thuricide is what l use. It has the bacteria Btk.

Yes it is Bt. That's not the same stuff you use on beehives. I don't remember which strain it is, but it's not Bt.

Sounds like army worms. I have them bad here. They laugh at biological pesticides. Better dust with Sevin after dark and then wash it off before daylight to spare the bees. I use a duster so I can coat underneath the leaves. It eliminates them but there will be more hatches. I just keep an eye out for them and kill them as soon as I detect them.

THATS THE ONES!!!!!

They are destructive little pests but won't cause too much damage if you get them the day they hatch. The armyworm moth lays her eggs on the underside of the leaves in one batch. If you have time and patience, you can spot those and scrape them off before they even hatch. If I see a batch, I cut that leaf off and drop in a bucket of soapy water to kill them. The eggs look like this:

Armyworms won’t laugh at Bt. It’ll kill the piss out of them. Dust your corn silks with it and see if you have any corn ear worm damage.

I tried Bt and it did not stop them. It could be because they have to eat it for it to work and they consume an entire plant in no time. By the time it affects them, the plant is gone. I tried all the organic controls and none worked. Bt, spinosad, neem oil, etc

The deal with armyworms is that they were there at least a week before you noticed them. Like you said, they've got to eat it to kill them. I use to do a routine dusting about every 10-14 days. That'll keep em gone.

I found 3 plants that had hatches on my lunch break. I treated 4 plants that had hatches last night. At this rate, I'll end up having to dust everything in the garden.

When they are as bad as you have them, the problem is really bad. Those worms start off near microscopic and by the time you can see them in those amounts you've got a serious issue. Just saying. Spray or dust the piss out of em because otherwise your gonna have wormy tomatoes or none at all and an issue for next year.

Yes, they are a serious issue and were last year too. I have already had to discard a ton of green tomatoes this year that they bored into. They are even eating my wife's herbs up...basil and cilantro. They have even attacked my okra and pepper plants this year where they left them alone last year.

You can use BT one day, sevin on another and if you can find spinosad you can spray that too alternatively. I'd spray at minimum every other day until the problem abates. Just rotate what you are spraying and it should knock them back

Is the 5% Dust ok for a treat all on maters, squash, cucumbers, peppers, and cantaloupe? I dusted for the first time this evening, no blooms on anything yet.