Sorry, no photos yet!
Something is eating the leaves of my sweet basil. Both from the sides of the leaves and holes in the leaves. Clean edges and big holes. Anyone have any ideas?
What is eating my sweet basil?
Here are some photos.
and another
one more
I know it's not slugs as I have down slug bait. And no slime trails!
Bolino, I have seen that here also and am not sure but think it was a small bug that resembled the cucumber beetle. That may not be correct ID. Unfortunately, short of catching them in the act and picking them off I don't know what else to do. Sorry.
Grasshoppers eat basil here in the High Desert and leave similar holes. I caught some in the act on some purple ruffles the other day.
Hmmmm...
I haven't seen any grasshoppers around here. Maybe it's a close relative.
The starlings or blackbirds (or some other black birds) are after all my herbs this year. They don't really eat it, they clip off new shoots, rip out little plantings and mangle leaves but they always seem to drop them nearby.
Yesterday they pulled out an entire (newly planted) lavender plant, the little snots.
I found little green worms on mine (cabbage loopers?)
Very hard to see...same color as the plants...
Swallowtail caterpillars love basil. There are 4 of them on one of my plants and they eat leaves in that fashion, though they are quite large and hard to miss.
This message was edited Jun 11, 2007 1:55 PM
It looks like my slug damage b4 I moved my plants... alas, you saw no slug trails......hmmm. thinking.
I'm getting similar damage from what I believe to be Asiatic Garden Beetles: http://www.yardener.com/AsiaticGardenBeetle.html
Bolino,
It could be crickets, they are famous for putting holes in my basil plants.
Interesting. Haven't seen any.
Here's something else interesting. I spotted some Japanese Beetles in the garden, and made up a bowl of soapy water to knock them into. I left the bowl with the soapy water and dead beetles in it right next to the basil plant and now the plant is not being eaten! And the number of dead bugs in the bowl has increased, more every day!
Bolino ~ what color bowl did you use? I have heard some bugs are attracted to a certain color... aphids to yellow ~ sticks in my mind.
Just a white plastic margarine bowl with some soapy water in it.
That will be a good solution. Cheap, easy and organic!
I was about to suggest June bugs which my husband and I refer to as July bugs here in New Mexico, because they come out in July. I read about planting a jar filled with dilute molasses to catch them, but if soap and water will do it, then so much the better.
LOL here they are March bugs...
The Japanese beetles are eating my basils like crazy...I will try the bowl of soapy water. I do not want to use chemicals on the herbs that we will eat. This year has been the worst! I found them eating my crab apple tree leaves and other plants that they usually stay away from. Even the birch tree has been attacked, as the leftover lacy leaves fall to the groound.
Have you caught any critters yet?? I was going to speculate--cutter bees. They supposedly take pieces of leaves off to build their nests. They do it on roses, too.
RBDigging, if you have an "spare" basil plant or two, use them for a "trap crop." (I grow 'Spicy Globe' plants each year for just this purpose, since it seems to be a number one favorite of the JBs.) Spray them with Sevin, and the beetles that eat them will die before they can do any more damage to your plants. I've even harvested from basils that were sprayed earlier in the summer, after pinching them back once or twice to be sure I'd be eating only new, unsprayed growth.
If you were closer to me and whole leaves were disappearing, I might say that the thing eating them was - ME!
I was just wondering...what Doesn't eat basil plants?
Actually, apart from slugs when they're little and Japanese beetles during their "season," I have very few pests on my basil. I think most things don't like the essential oils in herbs, although basil seems to be bothered more often than other herbs.
Actually the biggest problems I have had with basil have been viruses and wilts which mine only get when they are being grown in conditions they don't like -- particularly in the house in the winter.
Other than that, I don't have much trouble with basil, and Thai and Holy basil have even less than the Italian.
I brought in a sweet basil plant last winter, but I had to get rid of it because it smelled strongly of cat pee. That is the smell of the basil at times! I knew it wasn't my cat!!!
bolino,
I know what you mean. I had a big basil plant outdoors, and swore it was the neighbors cat putting "the spray" on it. I brought it inside and it smelled worse than before. Somehow, the thought of basil pesto left much to be desired. Basil just has a pungent odor. It's very strong. So that cat pee smell is just basil. Maybe it was the feline variety. ha ha
I know what cat pee smells like, and I've never had basil smell like that. On the other hand, perilla... or, what's that other one that's supposed to be a substitute for cilantro? starts with a p.... yuk, and really does smell like cat pee (to me, anyway).