Doubt it's the red headed ash borers. They specialize on trees.

AS far as "getting rid of" -- you need to ID what's doing the damage.

Any chance of pictures -- of the damage; and of the suspects?

There are insects that are pests and there are insects that are beneficial. Of the some 8,000,000 insects identified about 8,000 are considered plant pests and many of the others will eat those pestsa, if allowed to.
Newspaper and leaves are mulches and although they can help deter some of the insect pests the primary reason fo rusing them is to provide an environment that helps plants grow and maybe be able to shrug off attacks by the pests, but they are not meant to be something to fight off insect pests. The mulches can also create a habitat that helps the beneficials exist.
To know what to do to control insect pests that are not controlled by the beneficials means proper identification of the pest so you know what to use to aid in controlling them without also killing off the beneficials.

I would recommend adding some benficial nematodes to your garden as they will kill off most of your garden pests in a natural way. The beneficial nematodes will not harm your crops, they will simply kill off any ants, grubs, leaf miners and most other pests. Photos will help some. If you need more advise send me a PM.

oops; marta is spammy

here is a picture of the culprit eating on my corn plant... any help is greatly appreciated

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:142743}}