At this point we are 20 days ahead of 1996, which was also an exceptionally warm year. While temperatures were extremely high in the latter part of 1996, warm temperatures began much earlier in 1997. We estimate that the end of the fourth flight was during the week of September 15 th at this location and for Kern County. For most of Tulare and Fresno, the week of September 22 should be used as the end of the fourth flight, and for Madera the week of September 29 th . Although male scale will be captured continuously from now on, the fifth flight will be presumed to begin at this time.
Some blocks have large numbers of whitefly eggs on the fall flush growth.
One of the whitefly's favorite hosts is cotton. As the cotton is defoliated the whitefly move throughout the Valley in search of new hosts. Whitefly is resistant to most insecticides, and so at this point in time, we are recommending that you simply leave it alone and let the parasites and predators attack it. So far, the only situations that have required chemical control are those where the packing house uses dry brushing and can't clean up the honeydew on the fruit. In these situations oil sprays have been applied.