How to Keep Bugs Off Basil Plants
Instead of sharing your delicious basil leaves with the insects, keep bugs off basil plants. Several different insects tend to infest basil plants, but an attentive gardener can keep the upper hand and prevent insects from desecrating a basil plant. Whether you have Japanese beetles, aphids or slugs attacking your basil plants, prevent them from destroying your basil so you will have a bountiful basil harvest.
Fill the Mason jar two-thirds full of warm water, and add two to three squirts of dishwashing detergent to create soapy water. Pick the Japanese beetles from the basil plants, and drop them directly into the soapy water. Continue removing Japanese beetles every time you find them, and place them into soapy water.
Spray insecticidal soap directly onto the basil leaves when you see aphids infesting your basil plants. Spray the leaves in early evening so direct sunlight from daytime sun will not bake the soap into the leaves and damage the basil plants. Check the undersides of the leaves as well, because aphids often cluster in these areas. Spray the basil plants with the insecticidal soap as often as necessary to control aphids.
- Instead of sharing your delicious basil leaves with the insects, keep bugs off basil plants.
- Whether you have Japanese beetles, aphids or slugs attacking your basil plants, prevent them from destroying your basil so you will have a bountiful basil harvest.
Sprinkle diatomaceous earth liberally onto the soil around the basil plants to control slug populations. Because diatomaceous earth is a powder, shake it lightly to dust it over the basil and the soil. Applying the diatomaceous earth in the morning while dew still coats the basil plant will help it stick more readily. Reapply the diatomaceous earth after every rain shower.
Spray On Plants To Keep Bugs Away From Basil Leaves?
The annual herb basil (Ocimum basilicum) is prized for its large, succulent leaves. To decrease the risk of fungal disease from wet leaves, hose off basil during late morning on a sunny day. If possible, position the hose upward so that the water hits the underside of leaves, where soft-bodied pests such as aphids, mites and whiteflies tend to gather. Commercial soap sprays can kill soft-bodied, small basil pests such as aphids, whiteflies and spider mites. If you use the former, shake the spray bottle and squirt the soap spray directly on the basil leaves, being sure to coat the lower leaves as well as the upper surfaces. Mix liquid, non-detergent soap with plain tap water. If your home water supply is hard (high-mineral), bottled spring water makes a better choice. Spray both the top and bottoms of basil leaves. For garden use, neem products, also known as azadiractin, are available as concentrates. Follow label directions for exact proportions of water to neem concentrate.
- Sprinkle diatomaceous earth liberally onto the soil around the basil plants to control slug populations.
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Writer Bio
Kathryn Hatter is a veteran home-school educator, as well as an accomplished gardener, quilter, crocheter, cook, decorator and digital graphics creator. As a regular contributor to Natural News, many of Hatter's Internet publications focus on natural health and parenting. Hatter has also had publication on home improvement websites such as Redbeacon.
