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.

Yep, Dan you are right. I just flipped the light on out on my balcony and sure enough I saw a HUGE mouse or rat run across it. It ran into my storage unit that is connected to my balcony. I'm too freaked out to open that door and see what kind of damage it's done. Yikes! Not sure how to get rid of it/them but hoping maintenance can! Thanks so much as I was on the lookout for those big wood roaches and even put out boric acid. This would explain why I was still seeing the droppings.

Those caterpillers can finish-off dill faster than you can imagine, especailly as they grow larger.

There's an entire industry devoted to identifying, scaring, trapping, scent deterrents and a plethora of other gimmicks aimed at protecting the yard and garden from varmints. Some may work better than others and you could experiment with those, finding ones that work and don't need a lot of reworks or maintenance. Can be very time consuming and frustrating. Rabbits and squirrels are deathly afraid of owls so maybe an Owl dummy set near the area might keep the varmints from being so bold. Another option would be to build a small framed in area with a door and cover it with chicken wire. You could use it every time you get new plants to store them safely until you can get to planting. Even add a sunshade. You can do a lot with a few boards and a screw gun. I kept having trouble with birds digging through my potted seedlings on my plant table until I put a chicken wire covering on it. The four corners of the top section of CW are simply hooked onto screws at the four corners so I can take it off when I need to work on things or add/remove plants.