I am sad to say that Benny the basil plant has aphids.
We weren't quite sure what was wrong with him, but he started to just sort of wilt and wasn't looking as sprite as usual. I thought it was because I was over watering our herbs...and thus now have an infestation of tiny black flies that sort of crawl around in the soil. Google's solution to the little black fly problem was to basically stop watering your plants until the soil really dries out. If you have really dry soil, the black flies won't lay their eggs (so gross, I know) and will therefore hopefully end the cycle of little black flies. Well, I have been depriving our entire herb garden, all 8 pots, of water for over two weeks but those pesky black flies are still around, and they seem to be multiplying. Fortunately the rest of the herb garden seems to be surviving both the lack of water and the black flies. I'm not sure how long this will last. Though, I am convinced the mint could survive a year long drought and come out of it with more shoots. It's getting out of control and I need to somehow contain it to it's pot...but that's another story.
Anyway, the rest of the plants are surviving my lack of watering and they seem to be doing ok (besides the annoying black flies). But Benny? He was getting worse. So today I went on Google and did some intense research. After many Youtube videos, I decided that I would cut Benny back until he was basically a shell of his former self. Just a few shoots here and there. I thought this would give him the chance to put his remaining energy into growing new shoots. Well, in the process of cutting him back, I discovered these tiny white, ugly, creepy crawly, give me shivers down my back insects stuck to the underside of his leaves. Google to the rescue again. So, after a few minutes of internet searching, I have come to the conclusion that Benny has aphids (aka: plant lice). Eww. Eww. Eww. So, I cut most of his branches off and checked the ones that I had left to make sure there weren't any of those white little monsters on the remaining leaves. Even now as I write this I feel like I have bugs crawling all over my head. Ugh.
Anyway, Benny is now in isolation (on the other side of the balcony from the rest of the herbs). I also cut down Boris (the other Basil plant) just in case he was infected too, but his leaves looked fine. Either way, I hope Benny survives. If not, we'll just have to fork over $3.00 for Benny II.
As for the little black flies...any suggestions from fellow gardeners would be appreciated. As long as they don't start killing the rest of our herbs, I can live with them. Though they also give me the creepy crawlies.
Hopefully I can post a new picture in a few weeks that will show Benny alive and well once again. Keep your fingers crossed!
Andrea
