Hey!
Two weeks ago or so I bought a basil from the
supermarket. I just wanted to cook with it but then I thought about keeping it, so I separated the plants and repotted them.
It's not the first time I decide to keep supermarket basil but this has never happened to me.
I left the house for 3 days and when I came back I
noticed that many of the leaves have holes in them or look half eaten.
At first I couldn't find anything wrong with them, no bugs or anything else. Then I looked closely and I found some teeny tiny black spots on some of the leaves (last pic)
Do you have any idea what might be causing this?
They are indoors, if that's relevant
by lindaecansada
9 Comments
I’d love to know too. My basil is outside but some mornings I wake up and she is missing small chunks ☹️
Italiens..
My basil is outdoors, but I can tell you what has been eating mine: Earwigs. And I’m pretty sure the black spots you are seeing is Earwig poop. They hide in my rose petals after they’ve bloomed and there’s Earwig poop all over the inside of them. I’ve been able to control them eating my basil by setting soy sauce/olive oil traps underneath them and spraying the basil with neem oil. Those damn things also munch on my dahlias and my clematis. I just recently bought some Sluggo Plus to see it that would help, and so far, it’s too early to tell whether it’s doing any good. Earwigs only come out at night to feed, and they are great at hiding.
Hornworms or caterpillars maybe. One was eating my pepper plant
Check really really closely for tiny bugs. I had very similar holes on my okra seedlings I have inside (look at my profile for a pic). I finally saw a teeny tiny caterpillar looking thing (maybe a worm?) on the back of the leaf and squashed it. I haven’t had any new holes since!
Often it is tiny baby slugs at night. They often camp in the soil under the very plant
[removed]
First picture and two last ones look like traces of thrips. No idea about the big chunks though. 🧐
I found some very small hornworms on the damaged leaves of my plants while trimming the damage off. If I hadn’t trimmed the leaves off I would have missed them. Black spots are usually poo from some kind of critter.