Bear in the Garden, Pesto Pest & an Easy Pesto Recipe

One minute my brand-new basil start was vibrant and healthy, the next minute the top leaves were hanging over, limp and wilted. 

I’ve been jonesing for some homemade-from-our-garden pesto pasta, and had loads of freshly-harvested softneck garlic ready to use for the pesto. For the freshest pop of basil flavor, I bought an organic start a few days ago. 

I was just waiting for the top basil leaves to grow just a wee bit bigger before I pinched them off. I stepped outside yesterday for an early-ish bike ride, and saw the biggest leaf cluster was damaged! You could see sort of chew marks on the cut part of the stem.

Well, grrr. I wondered what pest had done it—and immediately thought of ants. I often see them crawling on basil.

Maybe hornets?  Or ants and hornets both? I’ve seen those two critters actually work together to damage berries at the end of the season. Not that it mattered—I no longer had enough basil for my pesto recipe. 

As usual, I tried to see it as half-glass full: at least I had enough fresh basil left for some marinara sauce.

That afternoon, going outside again for my usual work in the garden, I saw the culprit had struck again! 

The second biggest top leaf cluster had met the same fate as the first: hanging by a tiny stem filament, completely wilted. 

Well, now I was really steamed. The whole top half of the plant was toast. 

Drying the leaves in my kitchen

I can still use the basil for something, but my tastebuds had been so ready for fresh pesto.

Watering the now “beheaded” basil start a little while later, I saw a plump, medium-sized bee crawling over the plant—which had no flowers. Gently waving the bee away, I wondered if it was a leafcutter bee—maybe the kind of bee that had been the basil-biter. 

Leafcutter bees chew off little half-moons of sweet leaves like rose foliage—not to eat, but to use as nesting material. I think basil leaves count as sweet too. 

I’ve been researching our native bees the last few days, greatly inspired by a bee-keeping reader. Luckily, my husband John and I have tried to fill our yard and garden with as many pollinator-friendly plants as possible.

So lots of bees around to observe! I’ve been trying to pay a little more attention to our little bee friends, see if I can figure out their nesting and eating habits. 

I’m still upset about my basil. But I’ll take leafcutters and all our other native bees over a pot of basil any day!

If you’ve got fresh basil that you’ve managed to save from your garden’s pests and predators, here’s my recipe:

https://www.susancolleenbrowne.com/single-post/pesto-without-a-food-processor

In other news: my latest black bear invasion update! 

Young black bear just outside our deer fence

You’ll find Bear + Garden = Disaster in my July newsletter…I hope you’ll take a look!