The whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, represents one of the most threatening insects to the Arizona cotton industry. It is the primary cause of sticky cotton.
In November of 2004, a new bio-type of whitefly was discovered in a Tucson, AZ nursery by Dr. Tim Dennehy, University of Arizona. It was of tremendous concern as it was much more resistant to chemicals than our B biotype. A special ACRPC meeting was held April 14th, 2005 in Phoenix, AZ in order to address this discovery. Subsequently, a Q Biotype Task Force was enacted involving several industries.
The Q Biotype Task Force's mission statement is: To address the issue of the Q biotype of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci from a multidisciplinary approach in order to identify regulatory, research and control (alternatives) to prevent or minimize the pests effects on the various industries impacted while concurrently protecting American agriculture.
There were Powerpoint presentations made by Dr. Tim Dennehy and Dr. Judy Brown with the University of Arizona (left side-bar) during the April 2005 ACRPC meeting. They can be downloaded by right clicking on the name of the Powerpoint you wish to save below:
