Sweetpotato whitefly: prospects for biological control

Abstract

The damage to desert agricultural crops in Southern California and Arizona in fall-winter 1991 by the sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) is unprecedented in the history of the South west. Damage estimates exceed $200 million for California alone with the complete loss of the fall and winter melon crop and major damage to many winter vegetables and other crops. Origins of the problem, and potential biological control agents, are discussed.