During the past few days, several gardeners have commented that whitefly activity has been extremely heavy.

This hard to control pest is very prolific and can cause a variety of problems in the home garden especially on tomato and squash plants as well as on citrus trees.

With the right weather conditions, the life cycle from egg to adult whitefly can be as short as two weeks, causing a population explosion over night.

Adult females lay most of their eggs on young leaves so young nymphs are generally found on the underside of new tender growth.

As the plant grows, leaves bearing the maturing nymphs are found lower on the plant.

Like aphids, whiteflies have a piercing-sucking mouthpart and feed by removing sap from the leaves of the plant.

They also excrete excess liquid in the form of a stickysugary substance called honeydew.

Black sooty mold grows on the honeydew reducing the amount of light reaching the plant’s leaves.

In addition to poor plant health and the development of black sooty mold, tomatoes will show an irregular ripening pattern and there may be an increase in objectionable white tissue in the interior of the fruit.

To make matters even worse, adult whiteflies can also transmit plant viruses from infected plants to healthy plants.

Whiteflies have many natural enemies, parasitic wasp, lady beetles and lacewings all feed on the pest.

Unfortunately, the wet conditions experienced this summer have also lead to an abundance of weeds that are serving as host plants for the pest.

Numerous weeds combined with continued warm wet conditions are ideal conditions for whitefly populations to develop at a pace that natural enemies can’t keep in check.

Therefore, applications of insecticidal soap may be required to keep whitefly numbers from reaching damaging levels.

Residents are reporting that regular applications of insecticidal soaps are providing the best control.

Since the pest is found on the lower surface and underside of leaves, spray applications must be directed to these areas in order to be effective.