COTTON WHITEFLY
Bemisia tabaci (Aleyrodidae : Homoptera)

IDENTIFICATION

- Adults yellow colour, two pairs of white wings

- Body covered with white fine powder

- Hind legs longer than pre and meso legs

LIFE HISTORY
Egg: 3 – 5 days
Nymph: 8 – 14 days
Pupa: 2 - 8 days
Adult: 2 – 5 days
Generations: 10 12 per year
Active period: Through out the year

DAMAGE
DIRECT DAMAGE

Chlorophyll reduces

Sucks cell sap

Curling of leaves up word

Leaf dropping occurs

Plant becomes weak and produces less bearing

INDIRECT DAMAGE

Lint contamination reduces price

Sooty mould disturbs photosynthetic process

Blocking of stomata reduces respiration

Acts as vector of CLCV disease

INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT (IPM)

A) As pest of cotton crop

Clean cultivation

No fertilizer after 15th August

Stop irrigation after 30th September

Fertilizer may be applied to the cotton fields following potato after soil analysis

Avoid cotton sowing near rice, sugarcane, forest and orchards

B) As vector of CLCV

Seed treatment @ 5 – 8 mg/kg seed with Imidachloprid

Roughing and burying infected plants

Heavily infected fields may be ploughed up, after effective pesticides spray to kill the whitefly

Comparatively resistant varieties against CLCV may be sown

Inter cropping with vegetables and orchards may be avoided