Thousands of tiny white insects fly up when I disturb the plants. Lower leaves are sticky and turning black with sooty mould. Telangana, irrigated cotton. How to bring it down?
2 Answers
Clouds of tiny white insects with sticky honeydew and black sooty mould on lower leaves is a whitefly outbreak. Sooty mould blocks photosynthesis and whitefly also spreads leaf curl virus, so bring numbers down without flaring them further. Put up yellow sticky traps to monitor and trap adults, and check the underside of leaves where eggs and nymphs sit. Avoid synthetic pyrethroids and repeated broad spectrum sprays, which kill natural enemies and cause whitefly resurgence. Use a recommended whitefly insecticide and rotate modes of action between sprays, and a neem based spray helps against early nymph stages. Cut off excess nitrogen and dense canopy, both make whitefly worse. Follow label dose and PHI and confirm the current chemical choice with your KVK or PJTSAU, since recommendations change with resistance.
Yellow sticky traps really showed me how bad it was before I sprayed. I also stopped my extra urea dose and the flush of new whitefly slowed down.