Oh, Sweet Basil!

So, looks like one of my basil plants is getting chewed up - by what and anyone have a remedy? My other basil plant looks just fine.
Pictured is my basil being eaten alive.
Your thoughts are appreciated :) Thanks! ~Dana~

Here's a close up!

And the sweet basil right across the way which looks just fine.

Maybe a slug who is burrowed into the soil at the base of the one plant and comes out at night to chew on it? I have a hosta that had similar damage. It turned out-I think- to be the peaguineas which are no more.

bumping up....

Is there a solution I can make to spray on this plant to deter this?

As of right now, 48 people have viewed this post. Only one nice person helped. This forum is about Garden Foes. Doesn't ANYONE here have a suggestion how to deter this garden foe from eating my plant? I would really appreciate some suggestions. PLEASE?!

Hi Dana, It could be those nasty little grasshopper's (they eat at nite) and actually they are huge!and will eat a plant almost overnite, or as leaflady said could be slugs. Have you sprayed with anything or put out slug bait?

I use Thiodaine spray (for grasshoppers) and Malathion spray for other bugs. Hope this helps

Dixiechick

Dana, sometimes you just have to share your garden with the bugs. BUT only a little. I have a small garden (also have some basils) and I often go out among everything at twilight and look for caterpillars and bugs and hand pick what I find. I gave my gladiolus a bath with some dish soap and water, just brushed them down with a new paint brush as the cabbage loopers were eating their leaves and the butterfly kept laying eggs on the stems. So brushed them down with the dish soap water and rinsed them off. If its caterpillars or worms, they may only pester you for a while and then change into whatever it is they really are. I'm very much a novice but hope this helps....

Dana, Look carefully at the ribs of the leaves on their undersides, and also the stalks. There are a number of small moth caterpillers which spend the day stretched out along the leaf ribs. They are tiny, green in color and can be hard to spot. They feed at night, staying on the underside of the leaf.
They squash easily!

Have you tried encircling with diatamaceous (sp) earth to deter slugs, snails- and I s'pose you've dug in the dirt with a dinner fork around the plant in search of cutworms? Spray it with soapy water to make it taste bad? Yu won't be eating those leaves anyway . there, best I can do.

I am growing cinnamon basil and had something muching on my plants as well. What I did was spray with neem that I use sometimes on my tomatoes-- did the trick!

First pic looks like definite caterpillar eatin'!

The second looks more like cucumber beetle or the like.

Instead of using hard sprays I'd recommend a dusting of dipel (for the caterpillar). The plant looks like it's still in the pot so just make a barricade for any potential slugs (crushed eggshells, DE, copper pipe, etc).

Just study it during mid-morning and mid-day for any flying bugs (cuke beetles, flea beetles, etc) and hand-pick or spray with soap and alcohol IF you see them.

You could also just move them to a more sheltered area.