Sweet Potato Whitefly

Common: Sweet Potato Whitefly, Silverleaf Whitefly

Scientific: Bemisia tabaci, Bemisia argentifolii

Crop Hosts: Cotton and vegetable crops.

Identification and Life Cycle: The typical four-winged adult lays as many as 160 eggs per female. The adults live 8 to 12 days, and the total life cycle requires 65 days. Whiteflies are found mostly on the underside of leaves. In California and Arizona, the whitefly overwinters on desert weeds, migrates to cucurbits in January and February and then moves to cotton seedlings.

Geographical Distribution: Florida, Gulf Coast states, Arizona and California.

Damage and Treatment: As with the greenhouse whitefly, nymphs and adults remove nutrients from the plants, resulting in plants with low vigor. As they feed, whiteflies produce large quantities of honeydew, which can reduce cotton quality and interfere with ginning and spinning.

Treatment should be made when insect populations and/or damage levels reach economic thresholds. Refer to local University Extension Pest Management Guidelines for specific state thresholds.