Advances in Whiteflies and Thrips Management

The sweetpotato whitefly Bemisia tabaci and thrips species such as the tobacco thrips, Thrips tabaci and the western flower thrips Frankliniella occidentalis are major agricultural pests in various vegetable, ornamental and field crops. These pests cause extensive damage by a direct feeding on plants, reducing quality of the produce, secreting honeydew and transmitting economically important viruses. Management programs of both whitefly and thrips species rely on using chemical insecticides, resulting thereby in developing resistance to all major insecticide classes makes them a continuous problem in many cropping systems. Resistance monitoring is a major approach for the management and reducing resistance, and thus during the last decade B. tabaci, T. tabaci and F. occidentalis populations in Israel have been monitored for resistance to major insecticide classes. Monitoring results show that many T. tabaci and F. occidentalis populations were found to be resistant to major insecticides used for controlling thrips species, primarily spinosad, while whitefly populations were found to exhibit varying levels of resistance to neonicotinoids and other classes, depending on the whitefly biotype and other agricultural practices. The long-term monitoring results and their integration into resistance management programs will be presented in this review.