Bacterial Spot or Speck? Need help.

[tomf]

Hello all. About 2 weeks ago, it looked like something was chewing on my cherry tomato plants (see pic). There were some tiny black bugs on the plant that I couldn't really identify. All I know about them is that when you when to grab them, they just instantly went to a mushy black streak. Thinking it may be the bugs causing the damage, I tried to treat it with some homemade insecticidal soap.

The plant looked to be doing better after about a week, and the open holes that were in the original picture looked to be closing up and healing. However, I was in the garden yesterday during a break in the rain and noticed that not only has the problem started to get worse, it has also begun to move onto the adjacent Big Boy plants.

After reading through several posts here on Tomatoville (particularly Dr. Male's sticky post/article in this category), I think the bug that I have having a problem with is more of the bacterial variety as opposed to the insect variety. Now I am wondering what to do next, as I have never had a problem like this.

Should I rip the infected plants out and start over (maybe with a very early variety to get fruit before the snow starts falling)? [Edited to add this] If this is the best course of action, should I do anything to the soil to prevent this from recurring?

Should I treat them with anything? The soap did seem to slow it down a bit, but it certainly has had no long term effect?

Should I do nothing? The two plants that are currently infected are, by far, the most prolific thus far, at least in size and number of buds. Now, the lower leaves look to be the worst, and the new growth (upper leaves) have only a single black speck or two on them. Can it survive such an infection and still produce fruit that is safe to eat?

And since this is my first time down this road, it would also be prudent to ask if have I completely misdiagnosed the problem? If so, what do you think it is?

I would appreciate any help you give on this. Thanks in advance.

[dice]

That does look like bacterial speck:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/p.../bac_spec.html

This page has more information on control of bacterial speck:
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r783101611.html

[hasshoes]

I had both bacterial speck and bacterial spot on my tomato plants my first year.

I religiously removed and threw out all affected leaves, making sure not to touch any healthy plants until I changed gloves or really really washed my hands.

I then sprayed Serenade weekly when I could, if not then bi-weekly. . . making sure to completely drench the plant and get the underside of the leaves. I did this in the early evening.

I ended up getting a lot of tomatoes. . . only a few cherry types ended up with marks on them towards the beginning of fall because I stopped spraying.