Wow! In over 30 years of growing basil I've never ever seen this before. I just pulled a 1" long, very fuzzy, pure white catapiller off one of my plants that it was chomping away on. Would never have noticed it except for the black droppings. Has anyone else had this happen as I am very very curious.
Rich
Catapiller on Basil???
I don't think I've ever seen a caterpillar on mine.... japanese beetles take a toll, however. If it's just the one and if you have a little spare basil, you might see what it turns into!
Too late critter, it's long since turned into a splotch on my patio. I too have had Japanese Beetles on mine although so far this year I've not seen any, but this is certainly a new one on me and I guess I'll have to keep a good lookout on the rest of my basil. No matter how long you garden you're always running across something new!
Rich
I experienced the same thing about a month ago. I had cut some basil, washed it, and as I was picking off some leaves I saw a white catepillar on the back of one of the leaves. The critter had chewed some holes in some of the leaves. Have not seen any others since then. The catepillar was white, about 3/4 inch long and narrow build.
had green caterpillars (some super tiny, narrower than a vein on the leaf) in my purple ruffled basil. Only noticed the caterpillars because one huge fat green one had eatten almost all of my lemon thyme overnight, so I went through all my potted herbs with a fine-toothed screwdriver (bugs wig me out, so I don't want to accidentally grab one).
"a fine-toothed screwdriver" -- really?? LOL
I still haven't seen anything like that on my basil, but there's a very fuzzy cream colored caterpillar that I've been seeing on my green bean plants... since they seem to be eating leaves rather than competing with me for the beans, I let them go about their business.