Greetings,

I am new here, and this is my first gardening adventure. I have a pot
on my patio, and in it I have five basil plants and an oregano plant
that I purchased as seedlings. Everything was going fine, and they
were growing well, but I have recently noticed a great number of little
critters taking over on the tips of most of the basil plants. I
suspect that they are aphids, or something like that, although I am
fairly naive about different insects and how to deal with them. So I
am soliciting advice: how should I get rid of them? I plan to use the
basil in cooking, so I hope to avoid an unpleasant, toxic sort of
treatment. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I have provided
the following two pictures to help illustrate the problem.

http://i4.tinypic.com/10d76ac.jpg
http://i4.tinypic.com/10d786u.jpg

Also, I wonder if you think that I am overcrowding the pot? I know I
have the plants spaced much closer than the typically quoted value, but
I have read that container gardens can accomodate a much greater
density of plants, but I could not find a good guideline for this.

Thank you for whatever help you may provide!

Andy