My Basil is Fawlty.

Another vote for possums. I know a lot of staff at ANU whose basil is being annhilated by the buggers. They’ll eat the basil and nothing else, so it sounds like this is your problem.

A good non chemical or trap option for Possums, I had a heck of a problem with the neighbours ‘pet’ possums devouring seedings in the vegie patch. Possums are highly territorial – I grabbed a couple of stuffed toys (possum like in appearance) from the dump recyclers. Hang these on the fence or other structure in the vegie patch and move them around every now and again…… The first night they were knocked to the ground and after that no more damage….

Annoying, isn’t it? Probably is snails, slugs, or slaters – even if you didn’t see any when you checked. Best time to check for them seems to be about 10-11PM, but they come out at all different times.

I solved my ‘basil being eaten’ problem by using some Multiguard snail bait from Bunnings. I don’t usually like adding pesticides etc, but all my young plants were being eaten! The iron ETDA stuff isn’t like the blue or green snail bait, it’s not harmful to pets or children, and breaks down to usable iron for the plants. It acts as an appetite suppressant rather than a poison. Seems to have some efficacy with slaters as well. I’d recommend throwing a few handfulls around your young plants, and see if it makes a difference.

My capsicum, chilli, basil, and many other seedlings were disappearing overnight, but are all nice and healthy now!

Possums? I’ve seen magpies eat various herb plants – but only during the day.

Possums would be my guess

Possums – they love basil.

Even though you didn’t actually see the snails/slugs there’s a pretty good chance that’s what did it. Scatter some eggshells around if you want to try and stop them (or, go the whole hog and nuke them with snail pellets)

My other guess would be possums.

it would usually be snails or slugs, but if you haven’t seen any during the night it could be caterpillars. during the day they hide underneath the leaves so you can’t really see them unless you are particularly looking.

how i stop them eating my basil plants:

– make up a soap water spray in an old pump/trigger squirting bottle, then spray this all over the basil plant. the catapillars and slugs and snails hate the soapiness so they don’t eat the leaves. you will need to reapply it every time after it has rained (and of course wash the basil well before you eat it)

– companion planting, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants usually marigolds work well but i haven’t needed any this season

another thing, slugs and snails love beer so if you do have a slug/snail problem, you could dig a small hole near the plants and then fill an old margarine container with beer and bury it so the top of the container is level and open with the ground. the slugs and snails will go for the beer and then won’t be able to get out and they should drown in there.

Earwigs.

Our garden is infested with the buggers. I strongly suspect that you would find a heap of them under wood logs, or under foliage. They come out at night in their swarms and are voracious when it comes to soft greenery.

Our broccoli was attached and stripped to the bones over night.

Pyrethrum sprays are effective, as are the nastier chemical sprays.

~Ozi.

My guess is caterpillars. We started seeing them in herb pots out on a well elevated balcony, and the basil was eaten quickly.

I believe a popular ‘natural’ pesticide is to cook up a solution out of garlic, chilli and water and apply with a spray bottle.

There’s a link here: http://organic.lovetoknow.com/Organic_Pesticide

There’s bound to be more if you google for ‘natural pesticide’. Cheers.

(sorry mods, the ‘Preview’ button seems to be gone, and I borked the HTML)

Possums, I’d bet. They’ve were at my mum’s roses for years. In my experience (and my mum’s) there are two ways to tackle the little units: either trap the possums and relocate them, or fend them off with some spray or some such on the plant in question.

For the first option, go somewhere like Powell’s Stockfeeds in Colbee Court in Phillip and hire a possum trap. They’re about $20 for a fortnight or something. Remember, when relocating possums there are laws about how far away you’re allowed to move them.

For the latter option, this really works best when you don’t have to actually eat whatever it is that’s being eaten, or where you can apply a spray to the leaves of a plant, but not, say, the fruit. Prolly no good for your basil, unfortunately. Given the extensive empirical research I’ve conducted, I thought I’d share the recipe. This spray will also work very well for all other nasties (aphids etc). There are anti possum type sprays you can buy from gardening shops and such, but they’re more or less the same, and don’t work as well.

My preferred method is to make up my own concoction. Chop up heaps and heaps of garlic and chillies. I’ve used two or more bulbs (not cloves) of garlic, and maybe a dozen chillies. You can throw in cayenne pepper and paprika as well. Boil everything up in about a litre of water for 10 or 15 minutes, and then filter it. This is important or you’ll clog the spray gun. There are different ways to filter, but I’d just get a couple layers of paper towel in a colander or sieve or some such and pour the mixture thru into a different bowl. Next step is to transfer, by way of a funnel, into one of those cheap spray gun bottles. The bottles are about 500mL, but there will have been a fair bit of evaporation during the boiling, leaving you with a more potent mix.

Once you’ve got your mixture it lasts a while. Apply it liberally, including to the underside of leaves. I’ve not found any plants that this has bothered, and it works very well.

Good luck with your basil.

My guess is caterpillars. We started seeing them in herb pots out on a well elevated balcony, and the basil was eaten quickly.

I believe a popular ‘natural’ pesticide is to cook up a solution out of garlic, chilli and water and apply with a spray bottle.

. There’s bound to be more if you google for ‘natural pesticide’. Cheers.

Are there possums or rabbits in your area?
If you think possums may be your problem, there are some natural deterrents available you could try (see first link below)
According to the second link, barriers like mosquito netting are effective, as is the solution made from Quassia chips.

http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dse/nrenpa.nsf/FID/-BA8F66E2207E9E1ACA256D9000082EC0?OpenDocument

http://www.permacultureliving.com.au/2009-01/how-to-stop-possums-eating-your-garden.html#comments

Hope this helps – it is very depressing when cossetted garden plants get et.

most likely snails… they are just hiding when they see your torch…

same thing happened to mine until I liberally applied (pet ‘safe’) snail bait.

I am having the same problem with my own basil seedlings. I suspect it is earwigs.