jump directly to content.
Principles. Crops. Pests. Control methods Library. Links.
key visual: online information service for Non-chemical Pest Management in the Tropics

Preventive Control

Natural enemies

Parasitoid


Encarsia

Predators

1. Lacewing
2. Ladybird beetles
3. Spider

Monitoring

To monitor the presence of whiteflies, look at the underside of the leaves to see the tiny eggs, larvae, and the adults. Shaking the plants gently would disturb the adult whiteflies and they will fly off. If there is an incidence of whitefly infestation, prompt control is necessary as whiteflies multiply their numbers rapidly (USDA, 1995).

Management and cultural practices

  1. Do not plant crops such as tomato, eggplant, cucumber, pepper, cole crops, and cotton near crops that have whitefly infestation. This would lead to early infestation of these crops and could ruin the whole field crop.
  2. Plant susceptible crops at least one-half mile upwind from other whitefly hosts crops.
  3. Even after the crops have been harvested, the whiteflies continue to live on the abandoned crop residues. To stop the lifecycle, plow the field immediately after harvest and incorporate the plant debris into the soil.
  4. Remove and destroy any whitefly infested plants.
  5. Whiteflies are attracted to Nicotiana, a flowering tobacco plant variety. Plant this crop as trap crop (Ghorganics, 2004).
to the top        PAN Germany, OISAT; Email oisat@pan-germany.org