Whiteflies Showing Up Sooner Than Expected

By Clint Thompson

One familiar insect pest is starting to rear its ugly head this summer. Unfortunately, its arrival is earlier than expected. But that’s the grim scenario facing vegetable farmers preparing for their fall crops.

Stormy Sparks, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension vegetable entomologist, said whiteflies have started showing up in cotton, according to conversations he has had with UGA cotton entomologist Phillip Roberts.

“Phillip texted me (recently) and said whiteflies are getting started in cotton. That’s about two or three weeks earlier than we would want to see,” Sparks said. “If it stays hot and dry, that’s what whiteflies love. That’s one of the problems with watermelon. Watermelon is not a huge whitefly crop. But it’s so many acres. You don’t have to have huge populations for it to contribute quite a bit, just because of the acreage involved.”

Whitefly infestations are significant because of their potential impact throughout the year. They typically migrate from winter vegetables to spring vegetables to agronomic crops, like cotton, to fall vegetables and back to winter vegetables. The buildup of whiteflies is concerning since their feeding injuries in vegetables can lead to virus transmission, including cucurbit leaf crumple virus, cucurbit yellow stunting disorder virus, cucurbit chlorotic yellow virus, squash vein yellowing virus and tomato yellow leaf curl virus.