Chemical Control and Integrated Pest Management of Woolly Whitefly

Abstract

Five foliar insecticide treatments (Esteem, two rates of Provado, two rates of Applaud, Prev-am, and Danitol + Lorsban) were evaluated for their control of woolly whitefly infestations in grapefruit. All of these products demonstrated efficacy in mitigating woolly whitefly populations. Danitol + Lorsban was the best knock-down treatment evaluated, but for sustained control, Esteem appeared to be most effective. Applaud demonstrated good activity, but the rate we tested may be a little low; the 1.0 lb/ac rate should be evaluated. Provado at 19 oz/ac was a good treatment, while the 10 oz/ac rate appears to be sub-par. Prev-am is a oil based contact material and demonstrated good initial activity. Soil injections of 16 and 32 oz/ac of Admire were very effective against WWF, and there were no detectable differences between the two rates. Previous experiments with soil injections of Admire in citrus suggested that as much as six weeks needs to pass before the trees have enough time to adequately take up the Admire from the soil. However, these data suggest that smaller trees, about 10 ft tall, may require as little as two weeks to pick up the material.