As it turns out, my mesh cover keeps out most of the insects, however there is one kind of insect that evidently was able to get through… the fruit fly or what we call a fruit fly.
I didn’t know that they were in the basil. Each evening when I’d bring the basil inside and set it on the window sill, unbeknownst to us, fruit flies would get out and fly around the house. We’d chase them down and kill them and wonder where they heck they came from. It wasn’t until I saw one inside the mesh of the basil container that I figured out where the little buggers was coming from and it all made sense. I figure they must’ve got on the soil and laid eggs. Yuck!
Since I didn’t want to toss my basil, I decided to use a little natural control on them.
I got out my bag of ‘Diamaceous Earth – Food Grade’ also called ‘DE’ and covered the soil heavily. As long as it stays dry, it’s effective against insects.
I’ve always watered the basil from the bottom tray. It helps keep the roots deeper in the soil. So, I’m good there.So far so good on keeping the fruit flies controlled.

‘Diamaceous Earth – Food Grade’ is a natural pest control. The way DE works is it scratches the spiders/insects/bugs exoskeleton and causes them to dehydrate and die.

If you plan to try ‘Diamaceous Earth’, make sure you use ‘Food Grade’.  And also, do the research and read all you can about it. There’s safety measures that need to be followed if it’s used on a larger scale than I have used it here in my basil container.

I hope you all have a pest-free rest of the week!

.