Evaluation of Foliar Insecticides for Whiteflies in Cantaloupes

A single application of buprofezin (Applaud7) at 0.38 lb AI/A had the fewest number of adult whiteflies (WF) on rating dates at 13, 21, and 27 days after treatment (DAT). The number of immature WF at 21 DAT of a single Applaud application ranged from 0.8 to 5.2 nymphs/leaf, significantly less than the untreated. Applaud treatments were effective in minimizing the immatures for 21 DAT of a single application and then numbers began to increase before 27 DAT. Applaud plus two subsequent weekly applications of bifenthrin (Capture7) plus endosulfan (Thiodan7, Phaser7) was almost similar to single applications of Applaud alone and adult numbers were also low. Weekly applications of the pyrethroids plus endosulfan reduced the adult WF relative to the untreated at 1 week after treatment (WAT). At 2 WAT of the third application, fenpropathrin (Danitol7) and Capture continued to show reduced numbers of adults and esfenvalerate (Asana7) was similar to the untreated. Danitol treatments had numerically fewer adults than Capture which was lower than Asana. The lowest adult and immature WF populations were observed season-long in the CGA-293343 (Novartis) treated cantaloupes. Both rates, 0.067 and 0.09 lb AI/A performed similarly and numerically slightly fewer nymphs were observed for the higher rate. CGA-293343 plus CGA-215944 (pymetrozine, Fulfill7) performed similar to the two rates of CGA-293343 alone.