If I had to guess by my own cats, I would say that they don't like basil. When I started my seedlings they ate everything but the basil! Maybe a bunny?
Hope you find the culprit!
My Garden Blog

Definitely Slugs.

I've never seen any bunnies and we live in the city. Birds are usually my biggest problem. So, slugs will eat the newer leaves and work around the old (the old being only a few weeks)? They must have had a busy night of it! As rainy as it's been here in VA, slugs do make sense. Is there a fix?

When you figure out how to control the slugs please let me know. The major problem I have, and it looks like you have the same problem, is that it rains every day. So if I put something like DE down to control the slugs it gets washed away the same day. I thought about buying some slugo (I think that's the name), but same problem with the rain. I'm just not sure what to do, but the slugs are having a feast!

Wouldnt putting some slug control down, even if it gets washed away, help a little? Then just reapply after the storm or that night or something? That is what I would do. At least it would be there or in the ground near it or something.

In my garden it's been the earwigs! They've been after quite a variety of seedlings this year.
Try this recipe and see if you drown any....I found it the other day on the Plant Clinic forum and set some out that night....next morning I had at least 50 earwig nymphs and adults!
1 Tbsp. each of cooking oil, soy sauce and molasses (or Karo syrup). Blend well and fill a small container (yogurt,ect.).

I made enough for 3 containers, but now that I see it works I'm putting more out tonight!!

Good luck,

Vera

If you find out that slugs are the culprit, I have a fool proof way to deter them. This year I placed copper mesh around all my hostas and not one (75 plants) has been attacked by slugs. I used landscape fabric pins to anchor that mesh around the base of the plants when they first appeared in the spring. You can buy the copper mesh from Lee Valley Tools. It's called "copper blocker" and a hundred foot roll costs 40.00. It is manufactured as a tube of mesh so I cut mine in half and got two hundred feet. I swear it really works. I wish I had all the hundreds of dollars back I've spent on fighting slugs.

I also had a HUGE slug problem this year. I tried everything organic I could think of until......

On the hosta forum they had a solution -- and it worked immediately!!!

Mix up a 8 to 1 mixture of water and Ammonia and pour it on your plants, right to the roots. This is where the slugs can lay in wait until it is dark and wet - their favorite!!

I used this after I had tried everything else, including going out and spraying the same ammonia solution on each slug individually, which only killed that one slug. But, by saturating the ground with the mix, it got all slugs, even those that had not come out yet and the wee babies:) I also heard that you should water first, so the solution doesn't get diluted by soaking into the dirt.

I actually left one plant free of the ammonia soak, it was the only one the next night that still had slugs. And, if you have a lot of mulch around your plants, soak it too!!

Also, the ammonia is good for plants - like a nitrogen burst;)

Good Luck!!

g

Crushed egg shells work reasonably well for an organic solution too. But it sure takes a lot of them!
Thankfully, my 'girls' keep laying and I keep saving!

Deanna

One other option - small cups of beer. The slugs can't resist it. They crawl in and drown, presumably happy at the time of their demise.