Cucumber beetles eat holes in basil leaves, according to a wholesale herb grower whose talk I attended yesterday. There are no good organic remedies. They've left enough for me. The highest quality herbs are grown in lean soils -- no fertilizer, not a lot of water. Too much of either, and they'll die. A little too much, and the herb flavors will not be as strong.

I'd try the Safer insecticide soap. That's about the only thing I use on my veggies and herbs.

You say "the other stems in my pot are doing great". Does that mean that, on a single plant, some stems look good and others are dying? If so, then your plant is sick and the disease will likely spread throughout and kill the whole plant. This is a disease usually caused by overwatering. If you recently repotted your basil you should have also cut back on the watering frequency until the plant's roots grew into the new pot. Completely remove any sick stems by cutting them back, past the diseased area. It wouldn't hurt to disinfect your pruners or at least wash them with soap and water to avoid transferring disease to another, healthy plant. A totally screened in porch could be shading your plants pretty significantly so I'm not sure you could call that "full sun". Full sun generally means, unfiltered direct sun for at least 4 hours, preferably in the morning rather than the evening. Every year I cover a few plants so that I can collect the seeds-they are covered 24/7 with a row cover material prevent cross pollination. However, the sun beats down on them all day long without any other obstructions from buildings or trees. I do have have problems from time to time, especially when the plants stay too wet. Slug and/or caterpillar eggs could have come with the plant. I wouldn't expect that you'd have aphids either, but you say you do. Something is eating the leaves though, right? As suggested by rhizo_1, pictures would really help any further diagnosis. F. DeBaggio

I have basil growing in pots, black plastic sort of window box things With legs Nice looking containers Large containers and long In the pots, two of them I have various types of basil, Rosemary, Lavender, and something else I forget what it is Right near my kitchen door so I can just cut off what I need and when One type of the basil, of course my favourite kind, gets holes in the leaves and I have figured out , and seen what it is Even though in pots and not overwatered. It is Earwigs. Have even seen one , no two, times when I have cut some leaves for adding to whatever. I do put coffee grounds in both of the pots and egg shells What I have taken to doing, and I know this sounds, a bit yuk is just washing off the leaves I want to use and chopping them up I figure, that commercially that is what would happen so this year I have been doing this Main thing is to be sure not to have any bugs in what I use and wind up chopping them up into my salad. That for sure would be YUK I do have lots of basil though and am thinking to maybe plant some seeds and have myself another crop before the big freeze Never can have to much basil that is for sure.