The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1910-01-29
COLD DID NOT KILL WHITEFIY
DefoIiation and Destruction of the
Leaves of the Trees Will Help.

question to Prof. Berger OF the Ag-
ricultural Experiment Station. at
Gainesville He replied as follows:
Dear Sir:-Your letter of the
10th requesting statement in regard
TO the effects of the cold upon white
fly and the benefits to the grower,
came recently TO hand and l have
cheerfully prepared the enclosed
statement, which | trust will meet
with your requirements. | have
tried to put the important points re-
garding cold and whitefly into brief
statements which I felt would be
more likely to be read by the aver
age grower than longer paper.
Very sincerely.
E. W. Berger. Entomologist.
/. Temperature of Il and IS de-
grees during the cold of December
80 and 81. killed few, if any. white
fly larvae on leaves that were not
injured by the cold. The willing
and drying up of the frozen leaves
have resulted in the death Of most
OF the whitehy larvae on them. A
few live ones can still be found
however. here and there, on these
dead leaves.
2 In the winter of 19OS-9 dry
leaves were found beneath trees
with few live larvae and pupae on
them, which later produced winged
insects. 1t is therefore possible for
some we'll advanced whitefy larvae
and pupae to pass through the win
ter on dead leaves, and mature in
the spring.
9. Temperature OF II to IL de-
grees in an ice factory. in expert
ment by Prof. H. A. Gossard, killed
the whitefy pupae in one-half TO one
hour. Temperatures of 10, 6, and
2 degrees, however, in 1899. at
Jacksonville, Lake City and ITALIA
hassee, respectively. did not exter-
inmate the white1y at these places.
4. determination the whitefly
by cold is a rare exception. and ap-
parently complete defoliation by ar
tificiaI means has not been success
full in exterminating this insect.
Complete defOliation by cold or by
artificial means appears, generally,
to be but little more effective in re-
or good spraying.
). The benefits to the grower
from the effects of the recent freeZ-
ing cold upon the whitef1y will gen
orally be more than offset by the
loss of foliage and consequent prob
able reduction Of next seasons crop.
The whitefly could be more cheaply
checked by artificial means than by
cold.
Attempts at exterminating the
whitef1y by completing the defoli-
alton after the cold of December
1906, proved to be failure. In one
locality a diligent effort was made
to complete the defoliation of the
trees: and as far as possible. all the
leaves were raked up and burned
However. by the middle Of next
summer much whitefy was present
again Investigation in this locality
during the next fall and winter
! G9O7-8). showed that whitedy lar
vac and pupae that had sufficiently
matured at the time of the dropping
| of the leaves, could continue to eX
list for some time upon dry leaves
| and in spring develop into mature
! insects.
! Many such leaves were collected
! beneath the trees, and adult white
! 1ys were obtained from them. The
writer's conclusions. and those o.
others also, were to the effect thai
at least some whitefiy had succeeded
! in passing the winter of 1906
| uSdu DCiiCctIi lllV tl0C
! leaves that had either become
| slightly buried in the sand or drift
ed by the wind to favorable locali
ties where they were not found a
the time of the raking and burning
| In this same locality a careful
search was made for other ever
green food plants of the whitefll
! than citrus. upon which 1t wa
| thought possible that the infestatioI
had been carried over, but no suci
| food plants were found.
| While all the trees have beef
nearly defoliated by the recent cold
this may be taken advantage of, tn
defoliation completed. and tn
leaves collected and destroyed a
| far as possible. 1t is important tina
the leaf-stalks, or aprons, should b,
removed as we'll as the leaves.
this work is carefully done TIL
grower may expect to have his tree
remain nearly free from whitef,
during the succeeding one, two o
even three seasons; provided, o
course, that he also destroys, or ha
destroyed, all other evergreen foo
plants. such as the Capejasmine ant
privet hedges which harbor the lar
vac of the white winged species o
WnlteHy. Inc ChlnaDerrY and UNI
| brella tree should also be destroyed
unless the work of eradicating tn
| whitefy is SO perfect (Which is un
likely that there will not be suffi
cient whitef1y left for migrants L
go TO the Chinaberry trees thi
spring and infest them.
The writer has in mind one in
stance in which the whitefy appear
to have been completely eradicated
by the freeze OF 1S94-5. so that n
lnfestation was again noticed unit
a year ago. This was al Crescen
City In this instance it appear
that, at the instigation OF Mr.. G. II
Hubbard, at that time residing a
Crescent City and an active workin
entomologist, all the Capejasmine
privet hedges, and other tree
known to harbor whitef1y, were Gu
down after the freeze. This ma
have aided in the determination. O
the other hand, there is good evi
denc which indicates that il was I'll
cloudy winged species of whitef
which infested Crescent City ar tha
! time. and as this species is nc
known to infest any trees but citru
one can easily comprehend hO'
this species should become extel