DAQ1903 was commissioned by the CRDC in response to industry concerns 

about the increasing pest status of SLW (Bemisia tabaci MEAM1) in southern 

cotton growing regions, its negative impacts on cotton lint quality and the 

threat posed by sticky lint to cotton exports. Commercial crop checking 

reports from southern Queensland and New South Wales were indicating that 

management recommendations for SLW control in effect at the time, based 

on adult sampling in the upper crop canopy, often gave results that were not 

consistent between crop checks, seasons and across different cotton growing 

areas.

A decision support tool (DST) based on graphical visualisation of SLW total 

(all-states) and viable-healthy large nymph density profiles from crop 

checking within a framework of population growth pathways was developed 

and made available for commercial use in the 2020-21 cotton season.

This system offers the user/crop manager/decision maker unprecedented 

capability to use not only current and anticipated future abundance of SLW in 

the crop but also levels of naturally occurring mortality within the population 

to underpin intervention (spray) decisions. Crop managers are currently using 

the DST to rationalise their intervention decisions for whitefly control in

cotton. It is expected that a high level uptake of the DST-based strategy for 

SLW control could result in at least 50% reduction in insecticide usage and 

reduce resistance selection pressure on key insecticides.