something is chewing the heck out of my basil leaves...not sure what it is...it reminds me of when i grew cauliflower last spring and those imported cabbage mouths that are white with a black dot on their wings were laying eggs in my cauliflower heads and eating the leaves...but i don't see any of sign of the little green worms any were...could it be slugs?

Do not know how much damaged you have, but if they are small holes in the leaves, they may be caused by lady bugs. I have seen them eat small chunks of basil leaves some times. I do not know why but I keep the basil around to help keep the lady bugs in my garden. So far no aphids again this year.

Maybe they like a little seasoning on their aphids.

Same thing happened to the first basil plants I put out in early May. Finally I went out at night with a flashlight and found the most enormous cutworm I'd ever seen. It had already done so much damage that I had to start over with new basil, which is now doing fine.

What does a cutworm actually look like?

i really hope it isn't cutworms...on some of my plants the leaf has been chewed clear off...there are a whole mess of rabbits that live in the filed right across from my garden...so maybe they are to blame

The worst problem I ever had like that was with slugs. I couldn't figure out what it was until I went out about midnight one night, and they were all over the basil. I always prepare for them by sprikling some slug granules - iron phosphate - in the rows I will be planting slug-prone plants, starting in early spring, and usually have no problems.

Dave