Grey wrote:

Hi there, I am a gardening newbie but am trying to take a fairly hands
off organic approach.

A lot of the plants in my vegetable bed have masses of soft, wet foam
around their bases full of squat insects that are grey-brown with a red
patch on either side of the abdomen. They are almost flea-like in their
squatness, with the body sloping up steadily form the head to the
middle of the abdomen, and then sloping down quickly to the tail. I
assume these are instars and not adults, and they are not very
segmented. I am finding them on tomatoes, chard, oregano, and lot's of
other stuff.

Should I let them be, or should I take measures (organic) to control
them? My chard has started having large patches of wilting on the
leaves (thin, soft, brownish light-green patches) but I don't know if
this is related. I can email you pictures, or is there a place I could
post them?

Thanks for any help!

Grey

well, the first item you list are spittle bugs, they are mostly harmless,
the best defense is a nice spray of water to get them off the plants

as far st the brown patches it could be over watering.. welcome to the
wonderful world of gardening, i love it!!