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The silverleaf whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, causes global crop losses by feeding on crops and transmitting more than 100 crop viruses. Whiteflies also excrete copious amounts of honeydew, which provides an ideal habitat for the growth of bacteria and molds. In the summer of 2017, growers across southern Georgia experienced a whitefly outbreak that resulted in losses exceeding $150 million in cotton and snap bean alone. Thousands of acres were tilled under or simply not planted due to raging whitefly populations and extreme disease pressure.

Unfortunately, controlling whiteflies is difficult – few crop varieties with resistance to whiteflies or viruses exist, scouting for very small insects is time-consuming and cumbersome, populations rapidly migrate from one field to another, insecticide applications must be initiated early and often, insecticides are prohibitively expensive, and insecticide resistance is a major concern.

As Georgia’s climate continues to change, we are experiencing fewer hard freezes, which suppressed whitefly populations annually in the past. Whiteflies now live year-round in Georgia. Therefore, we need new short-term, medium-term, and long-term solutions. There are no “silver bullets” for whitefly and virus management, so we will need a bigger toolbox in the coming years.