With reference to this question: Insect infestation on my pepper plant, what do I do?
I have these insects in my indoor "kitchen window sill" basil and they do seem to be chewing it fast enough to slow new growth, which is annoying.
The first suggested solution to getting rid of the insects is to spray them off the plant outside and then submerge the plant for long enough to drown any remaining. If I did this to my basil, wouldn't it drown the basil too? As I understand it, basil doesn't like wet feet.
What is the best solution to getting rid of such insects and still being able to use the leaves in food without hassle? Maybe the water spraying and drowning as suggested in related question is still the best?
ADDITION: The insects I'm dealing with are definitely not white fly, which is why I posted a separate question from this: How do I get rid of white flies on my basil?
UPDATE (9/Aug): I tried the detergent spray twice (per GardeningDirections user) without any apparent effect by the next morning. I then tried drowning the bastards last night (per Mikey) and hopefully it has been more effective, but I still saw two which I squashed this morning. I'll whether I can just kill off the remaining ones by hand. Any other suggestions at this point before I try to figure out what to do to close the question?
UPDATE (24/Aug): I have taken the whole planter container outside and picked off the individual larvae from the underside of the leaves in bright sunlight so none would be missed. Now I am hoping the insects' natural predators will keep them down for long enough for the basil to recover and then I'll bring the plant back inside. I still haven't ruled out trying pyrethrum spray but that's a last resort.
UPDATE (15/Sep): I have used a pyrethrum-based spray to kill perhaps 90% of the bugs while the planter box was outside but it also knocked the basil plants themselves so I did not respray. Now I notice there are still one or two insects left which have laid new larvae all over the undersides of the leaves... and I've also put these creatures through an evolutionary bottleneck so no doubt they'll be tougher to kill than ever! So I officially give up. These basil plants will be transferred to the garden outside, to survive or not. I will get new plants for my indoor planter box.
UPDATE (19/Oct): Transplanted outdoors a month ago the basil is still surviving, even thriving and the insects formerly dominating them are clearly being eaten by proper predators, which hints to me that the best possible way to control the insects would perhaps be to introduce a few friendly predators into the kitchen!