Monitoring

Whitefly Monitoring

Adult silverleaf whiteflies (SLWF) are monitored weekly throughout the year at selected locations on roadside right of ways.  Yellow sticky cards are used to attract and capture SLWF as they move through the landscape.  Mean SLWF captures by week can be found on the Overall Trap Catch map.

Pole with yellow sticky card at top, which is a silverleaf whitefly trap. The pole is situated in a field full of wildflowers.

Overall Trap Catch

Average silverleaf whitefly (SLWF) captures per week from all traps (see whitefly monitoring map for trap locations).   Means are presented as SLWF adult captures per week beginning in April 2020 and continuing at weekly intervals.  The zoom bar will allow you to change dates illustrated on the horizontal axis.

Growing Degree Day History

Annual accumulated silverleaf whitefly (SLWF) growing degree day data beginning each year on November 1 at the Coastal Plain Experiment Station on the University of Georgia Tifton Campus.  A minimal developmental threshold of 11.1°C was used and a generation time of 312 degree days is required to complete a generation on cotton (Nava-Camberos, Riley, and Harris.  2001.  Environmental Entomology, Volume 30, Issue 1, Pages 55–63).  This is a crude measure of SLWF risk, but higher accumulated degree days during winter and early spring suggest increased risk of SLWF in cotton.  Many other factors such as temperature and rainfall during summer months will influence SLWF populations.  The zoom bar will allow you to change dates illustrated on the horizontal axis.