Basil Pest - beetle?

matiz

Help! My indoor potted basil plant is being attacked. The leaves are being eaten away and there a loads of balls of what look like dung scattered inside and outside the pot each morning. Has anyone any idea of what the problem is and how to get rid of it. The dung balls are pretty big, so I'm imagining it's a beetle or something, yeuck! I'm getting itchy at the thought.....

Irish Gardener

Dung you say.
That is a reason to get itchy.
Sounds like something left behind after a mouse to me.

matiz

The dung balls are too small to be from a mouse, but they're not microscopic either. They're in clusters on the leaves of my plant.
I've done a bit of net surfing today and it seems my plant is prey to a gang of hungry caterpillars. I'll just pick them off when I get home and put them into a field nearby to wreak havoc elsewhere. Messy feckers..... Who'd have thought all that gunk could come out of a few little caterpillars!! Still itchy.... Thanks for your reply!

kittenkiller

Maybe try putting one of those cake-protector style nets over the pot at night until you find out what the culprit is?
[edit] Where they're coming from

I'm finding the same.
I think the lovely smell of the basil entices all sorts of little bgugers!

matiz

A big fat juicy GREEN caterpillar!! I nearly screamed the house down when I spotted him hiding on the underside of a leaf - I hadn't expected him to be so big! He was the exact same colour as the leaf. He got dumped into the composter for his efforts.

This morning, I checked and there was no more damage to the plant, so I hope he was a loner.

Thanks everyone for your help!!! Much appreciated!