Diato...What?!?

One of my college professors (BiologyII) was droning on and on about all sorts of things that I can't even pronounce when suddenly out of the blue there it was! A nugget of wisdom that I could not only understand, but I could use this baby. "What was it?" you might ask. Here it is my friends.....Diatomaceous Earth. It turns out that diatoms (aka jewels of the sea) have cell walls that are composed of a glass like substance. "Why do I care?" well the answer is easy....tomatoes. MY TOMATOES to be precise. Last year was my first attempt at growing anything edible other than peppers. My tomatoes were beautiful....until the bugs and other creepy things came and had a tomato buffet. I was so upset. I wanted to save my tomatoes, but I didn't want to poison my family in the process. My professor is a major naturalist and he swears by Diatomaceous Earth. Basically they take the skeletons of dead diatoms and grind them to a powder. It kills the pests without the use of poisons or other harsh chemicals. My teacher says you can get it at most feed stores or order it on-line. I'm going to give it a shot. I'll have to take pics and post with my progress!