I finally caught a glimpse of the creatures which reaked havoc on my basil.
I went out in the dark tonight with a flashlight and saw three long reddish
worms. The second I shined the light on them they slipped underground with
incredible speed. Could these worms in fact be the culprits? If so how they
be dealt with?

Thanks
Simon

Simon Stenkle

I went out in the dark tonight with a flashlight and saw three long reddish
worms.

Sounds like nightcrawlers to me. We used to catch'em for fishing. Tricky little
devils, really fast to, didn't know they eat basil. Did you actually see them
eating the basil or just stretched out on the ground? One of the tricks to
catching them was figuring out which end was in the ground. They don't react to
red light nearly as much as white light.

"Simon Stenkle" wrote:

I finally caught a glimpse of the creatures which reaked havoc on my basil.
I went out in the dark tonight with a flashlight and saw three long reddish
worms. The second I shined the light on them they slipped underground with
incredible speed. Could these worms in fact be the culprits? If so how they
be dealt with?

Sounds like nightcrawlers to me, too. I would be inclined to think
that they were eating the critters that were eating your basil,
though.

One way to test this theory would be to catch one of the red worms and
eat it-- if it tastes like Basil, then they must be the culprit. g
[Or you could examine under the leaves & see if a tiny little thing
jumps off. I've had flea-beetles eat some basil once.]

How is the critter eating the plant?
chewing off the stem?
from the top down?
leaves from the edges?
leaves from the center?
spots?

Jim