Fowersnhens, I was having the exact same problem with bugs in my chicken coop. I could open the door pop my head in, grab the eggs and be back out in seconds. By the time I got to the house I could feel myself just crawling with little bugs. So we cleaned out the coop, pressure washed the whole inside, dusted with mite powder, put in new shavings, checked all the birds(nothing on them). So I thought that should do it. Wrong. next day, still crawling. I caught a couple on my eyebrow, they were teeny little round greyish bugs. Could barely see them without a magnifying glass. It took me 2 days of being creeped out to finally find the little buggers. They were all over the outside of the coop door and the overhang above the door. Caked on the handle, latch, door frame EVERYWHERE but in the coop. No wonder I was covered in them. It was like walking thru a shower! ((**shiver**)) yick! I don't like to use chemicals if I can get by without it, but I found a can of KONK in with my garden stuff (pyrithin based) it's for plant and veggies but it works by direct contact with the bugs. I sprayed the whole inside and out side of the door, door frame and the roof overhang and now they are all dead. YAY. I've been looking for any moving things for 4 days now, still no signs of any more. So check the door area. There's nothing worse than feeling crawly! Good luck.

tdscpa, Thanks, I will call the master gardener's here Monday & see if they can give me tips on gardening here. burnet, Thanks for making your case against insecticides, I haven't really decided where I stand personally on the matter. As far as watering, I do water daily, I would say at least 3-4 inches deep? It's kinda hard for me to explain to you how much water, lol. But the reason the eggplant looks dry in that picture is because I dug it up & when I saw the balls I didn't have my phone handy, so I left it and went ahead and watered all of my good plants. (so the pic was also before watering, plus it sat in the sun until I got back to it with my phone.) And I know, I know. I should water early in the morning, but they really needed water that day & I didn't feel the need to wait. But when I dug it up, there was still some moisture in the soil from the previous watering the day before. Over watering, possibly? I really doubt it's under watering. The containers have no bottoms, just weed paper stapled to the frame, which is 6 inches deep as far as the wood (pine, untreated) goes, and it is dug down in the soil approximately another 5 inches, then filled with the soil mixture. I really wouldn't know if water drains out the bottom? The soil is always warm, and the weather here is always about 80 degrees. It never gets higher than 85. mauirose, Thank you! I'm growing on Oahu, I live close to Pearl Harbor, but I'm unsure what the elevation is. I took more pics for you guys to get the general idea of what my garden environment is. Although the biggest bed which has been having the most issues is against a chainlink fence, we live in a neighborhood packed full of houses, so they really don't get more than a good breeze. Actually I had no idea that spraying insecticide during the day would burn the leaves! That could actually be what has happened! I do live pretty close to a community garden. belgianpup, Pine. And the weather is kinda humid on Oahu. Thanks.

My whole garen was covered with a clear plstc and allowed to bake in tghe hot sun for a month. That year, I planted nothing. The following year after tilling, I still saw insects, grubs, and weeds. Now, for weeds I use a big propane flame thrower that is used to burn away all sprouting weeds. Peat moss offers very little beyond some ariation and moisture control. With all the plants start from seeds indoors, rarely do I get any issues of damping off or any insect problems. Nature can be OK at times, but sometimes it also needs to be tamed down or adjusted to help tender seeds and plants from dying too quickly. I used to grow over 200 tomato plants per year. Originally I was using MG and when my sister tasted the tomatoes, she said they tasted like chemcals and were bland, so that was it for me. Once made into sauce, they were not my best. Around here there is no burning allowed. Years ago, my dad used to burn paper trash, but that is also banned. My flame thrower use, go a visit from the police and once the saw what I was burning they did say to not use that method much to get rid of weeds. Weeds here seem to flourish better than any seed I plant.

DIpps, you cannot start a new basil plant from a dry leaf. One normally may grow a new plant from a stem cutting, BUT I would NOT try to propagate a new plant from this scale-infested one you have as it is a near 100% probability that the scale insects will come with it. Must strongly disagree with floral_uk about the adventitious root theory! But yes - daily watering is too much. I was interested to see that two people have posted photos of basil showing scale infestation. In all my decades of gardening I never have seen scale attack basil. I only have scale problems on my 3-year-old potted bay tree, and then only starting indoors in January. Outdoors during the summer it is fine. I am assuming there must be enough predators controlling the pests then. Indoors, I must resort to the alcohol swab cleaning technique.