Silverleaf Whitefly: Honeydew Sugars and Relationship to Sticky Cotton

Abstract

In cotton plots heavily infested with silverleaf whitefly (SLW), Bemisia argentifolii Bellows and Perring, amounts (mg /g of lint) of sugar (fructose, glucose and sucrose combination) on lint from tagged bolls, varied but showed a general trend to increasing amounts with increasing time of exposure (days) for 52 days. Minicard lint stickiness ratings responded in a similar manner and all values were above acceptable thresholds. Lint from harvested mature open bolls that were exposed on trays suspended in the interior of SLW infested cotton plots showed increasing amounts of sugar and higher minicard ratings after 6 days. Amounts of sugar and minicard ratings were drastically reduced following rains of 1.5 inches.