Basil growing tips from Milwaukee and Wisconsin

Garden and greenhouse enthusiasts have been given some advice on growing basil by a state newspaper.

The Milwaukee and Wisconsin Journal Sentinel suggested a number of pests like to attack the herb.

Slugs, it stated, often leave behind large holes or chewed edges on leaves. However, the pests can be combated by removing objects they are likely to hide under during the day.

It should also be easier to catch them in the act at night – this is when they are most active, the newspaper revealed.

Growers who notice "lacey, skeletonized leaves" may have a Japanese beetle infestation.

The bronze-green coloured insects tend to move in groups and can be fought with pheromone traps or bio-insecticides, the article stated.

Meanwhile caterpillar-like cutworms can eat through stems of young seedlings to destroy plants.

Again, these can be hand-picked in the evening when they are most active, readers were told.

The newspaper also recently carried advice for greenhouse and garden growers whose raspberry plants were failing to produce fruit.