The curse of cottonwood tree seeds! Help!

Sorry for the long post...I'm hoping to get all info out at once.
It starts (and gets worse) every year from early through late April ~ The cottonwood trees release seeds which are embedded in a little piece of cottony-fluff. The wind spreads them for many blocks and those of us who are avid gardeners dream of this tree's demise! :)
The seedlings sprout within days and choke out small plants and recently planted seedlings. Plucking them out is a lost cause, as they germinate by the thousands.
I usually have to sacrifice small and delicate plants as well as most young seedlings. At times, it's easiest to till an entire bed and start over.
Once the seed "lands" on a leaf or bloom, that piece of fluff may be the inert residual from the seed, but is often the beginning of a web-like home for pests which can murder a plant in short order! The only other visible sign of infestation (along with the pseudo-web) is tiny, small, black droppings.
I've asked multiple nurseries and specialists what these pests are and how I can control them. I get a different answer every time. I have seen a few red spider mites, but don't think they are associated...the red mites are easy to spot and I've seen less than a dozen this season.
I cut all of the blooms from my (*note the types of plants: most of which are supposed to be highly resistent to most pests) daisies, columbine, mums and lavender plants (all which were/are badly infested) and sealed each type seperately in a zipper baggie to see if the pests would emerge.
I don't recognize the insect which emerged: there were a dozen or so that came out of , for example, the columbine baggies. For lack of better description, they resemble tiny, 2mm long pieces of very thin blonde hair and they move with a slight jumping motion ~ rather like a lazy flea.
I've been told that the webs host everything from spider mites to webworms to other insects I've not heard of.
Does anyone have experience here? How can I save my garden? I started gardening approx 2- 3 years ago and feel that I've progressed fairly well in that time. I currently have in excess of 1,000 plants ~ primarily perennials (including 150+ lavender bushes) and a few dozen annuals for color.
Please help if you can ~ thank you for your patience while reading my "novella" post. :)
Bren / aka Jazzycat

Bren someone may be able to help you , but this is the wrong forum.

This forum is for question relating to adding data to the BugFiles database.

We have a forum on Garden Pests and Diseases Here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/pad/all/
and if you post your question there, you may get some help,

Kennedy
BugFiles Administrator