Tomatoes are planted in the summer at the same time that whitefly populations are high. In Israel, Turkey, and Cyprus the virus persists in natural weed reservoirs in the absence of a tomato crop. Whiteflies in many regions readily feed and reproduce on tomato increasing the difficulty of management. As with other plant viruses which can be transmitted for long periods of time by their vectors, suppression of the vector may provide an effective means of reducing virus spread within a field, and reducing the number of vectors which come into the field. Biological control, which often works well in the absence of broad spectrum pesticides to reduce the impact of the whitefly as a pest, offers insufficient control of the vector for the reduction of virus incidence.
Insecticidal control is difficult and expensive to maintain throughout an entire cropping season.
Several foliar-applied insecticides are available for killing whitefly adults and immatures. When applying foliar insecticides, it is essential to maintain good coverage on the underside of the leaves where whiteflies reside. Insecticides with differing modes of action should be rotated to retard selection for whitefly resistance to any one type of pesticide. However, the same practice was not effective in Israel, possibly due to long distance movement of viruliferous whiteflies. Fine mesh screens were found to effectively exclude whiteflies and virus from tomato transplant greenhouses.