Symptom of damage

• Appearance of chlorotic spots on the leaves and upward curling of leaves.
• Leaves become reddish, brittle.
• Premature leaf dropping, boll bursting and poor quality lint due to honey dew secretion.

Identification Characters and Biology

• Destructive stage: Nymphs and adults.
  Eggs: Yellowish white laid singly on the under surface of leaves. Egg period: 3-5.
  Nymph- Greenish yellow, oval in outline
  Pupa- Oval in shape, present on the under surface of the leaves
  Adult- Minute insects with yellow body covered with a white waxy bloom

Integrated Management

• ETL: 5 - 10 /leaf
• Avoid alternate cultivated host crops of the whitefly like brinjal, bhendi, tomato, tobacco and sunflower in the vicinity of cotton crop.


• Removal and destruction of alternate weed hosts like Abutilon indicum and Solanum nigrum from the fields and neighbouring areas and maintaining field sanitation.


• Adoption of crop rotation with non-preferred hosts such as sorghum, ragi, maize.


• Timely sowing with recommended spacing, preferably wider spacing and judicious application of recommended dose of fertilizers, particularly nitrogenous and irrigation management is essential to arrest the excessive vegetative growth and pest build up.


• Monitoring the activities of the adult white flies by setting up yellow sticky traps at 1 foot height above the plant canopy.


• Spray any one of the following insecticides when pest population reaches ETL:


• Imidacloprid 17.8% SL 40 – 50 ml/acre or Buprofezin 25%SC 400 ml/acre or Diafenthiuron 50%WP 240 g/acre or Thiacloprid 21.7%SC 200- 240ml/acre or Flonicamid 50% WG 60 g/acre or Thiamethoxam 25% WG 80 g/acre or Fipronil5% SC 600-800 ml/acre.