I would say to coax some of these bugs onto a piece of paper and take pictures of them. I have never heard of any herbs like this or any other plants for that matter, dying in a few hours after looking great just hours earlier. The only time I have ever seen anything like that was a few hours after spraying Spectracide weed and grass control. I am talking about the non-selective weed control with diquat dibromide, and on certain weeds it will cause significant visible damage and discoloring within a few hours of its a hot day outside especially. Its possible they just dried out and began wilting.

Hello folks - thanks for shedding some light on this - if anything it makes me relieved to hear bugs may not be at play so I dont have to worry about stuff breeding etc lol. I dont think Clemson does soil testing here, but I heard something local from someone at work which I will follow up on. The sun has been the same every spring/ summer - no change there. We moved here 2 years ago during fall - they were growing fine then. Next summer I may not have watered them enough as I saw burn spots on the hydrangea leaves and some of them were big patches. Following fall I hired someone for some yard work and they said our hydrangeas/ rose etc. had grown a lot and needed trimming so they went ahead and trimmed everything to 2-3 feet. The spring after (this year) - these guys esp the hydrangeas have been growing like crazy with less flower output than last year. I have also been watering more regularly - although there are still some burn spots - not as bad as last summer. So that's about all the history I know about these guys ;-) Btw - I m worried the pyroligneous acid will kill useful soil bacteria/ bugs as well. And doesn't it go against the theory that bugs are not at play here? Thanks.

In the absence of pictures... Insecticidal Soap treatment until you figure out what you have. You can buy it but if you have dish washing "soap" (not detergent or liquid) you can make your own. Mix one or two TBS soap to one quart of water and spray the plant and bugs daily. It should keep them at bay until you figure out what they are. Bill

somehow the beginning of my message was cut off. As the pictures above show, the bottom leaves are dying off. I have removed most of the dead leaves, There are also grey and darker spots on the stems, which are pictured above. Would love some help identifying this problem as well as solutions. I read through a book I have on tomatoes and could not identify the disease with one in particular. As noted above,the plants are in pots which have peat, vermiculite and the other small glass rock. My home made equivalent of a earthbox.