The poder is the manure of the grubs in the wood. Probably the horned beetle or some other beetle. They aren;t any danger to the house. For some reason dead hickory deteriates more quickly than other hardwoods.

I have no ideal Ted but the best I can tell you is to keep a very close eye on them. Although most people don't like to use sprays you may very well have to if you see an explosion of those little critters. Good Luck with keeping them in check. I don't have that kind of problem with my irises, but I do have alot of bug problems with all my cannas. The leaf rollers do their number on them and they are very hard for me to keep in check since I have cannas all over this place. I can't spray them all and if I don't the bugs will multiply like crazy and re-infest the plants that I did spray. It's a dog eat dog world when it comes to keeping these bugs in check (or dead) would be a better choice of words. I'm not sure I've ever seen that particular kind of bug. Happy Gardening, Marian

The critters are aphids. (Some of the small black stuff is simply debris.) The tears are unrelated. Have you had hail? or strong winds? In any event, the tears aren't a problem to the tomato's health.

Perhaps the clavate tortoise beetle.