Hi there,

I am new to gardening and herbs, and have been growing some basil indoors in my kitchen. I think I've got the watering down to a T and the plant is growing nice and healthy and strong, with lots of new leaves and growths, and some flowers just appearing on the top!!

But, the problem is, it appears to be being eaten by some tiny lillte bugs. If i shake the plant, lots of them fall off, and they are leaving the leaves all peppered with tiny dark brown dots, and causing the leaves to shrivel and nearly die.

I have taken a pic of one leaf, and a bug that came off (for scale) and a close up of the bug, which is about 1mm long (no idea what that is in old money - sorry!):

http://www.geocities.com/anthonycock..._13smaller.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/anthonycock..._19smaller.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/anthonycock..._22cropped.jpg

Can anyone advise what might be eating my plants, and how to get rid of them, making sure the plant is nioce and healthy for human consumption. Many thanks in advance

Cocksy.

Possibly thrips.

Spray with soapy water. Cut off the stems with damaged leaves.

If you want to keep the plants going, take off the flowers.

Hi beccabunga, thanks for the quick reply!

Will spraying with soapy water not cause the plant to die - I'm thinking back a few years to some early biology lesson where you put soapy or salty water in with a plant to kill it - please excuse my ignorance!!!

Secondly, why do i need to remove the flowers to keep the plant going? do i need to do this for all my herbs? Many thanks!

No - soapy water will not harm the plant. It is one of the recommended organic methods of dealing with insect pests. You can use ordinary hand soap, leaving the soap in the water for about 10 minutes to make sure the solution has enough fat to smother the pests. You then spray the leaves. What I then do is spray again after an hour or two with plain water.

The reason for taking off the flowers is that the plant will put all its strength into the flower in order to produce seed. By removing the flowers, the plant is forced to continue to grow. It is best with most herbs to remove the flowers, but you can always grow a separate plant just for the flowers if you want them. With the shrubby herbs [rosemary/sage/bay/thyme] you don't need to be as rigorous. You can wait till the flowers are dropping and then prune the shrub.

Thank you so much for your help - I'll give it a go straight away! Thanks again!