[4][5] The mobile nymph walks to find a suitable area on the leaf with adequate nutrients and molts into an immobile stage.

[6] One hypothesis suggests that the transfer of decorative plants from tropical regions may have aided in the spread of the silverleaf whiteflies to temperate environments.

[7] Plants which are affected by the whitefly include: tomatoes, squash, poinsettia, cucumber, eggplants, okra, beans, and cotton.

[4] The silverleaf whitefly is an invasive agricultural pest in many locations around the world, including in Florida[5] and in California.

[8] The silverleaf whitefly is considered an invasive species in the United States as well as Australia, Africa, and several European countries.

The silverleaf whitefly feeds on its host plants by piercing the phloem or lower leaf surfaces with its mouth and removing nutrients.

Scientists speculate that this pest was introduced via infested ornamental plants brought into the United States at this time.

Florida's poinsettia greenhouses were crippled by the pest beginning in 1986, and by 1991, the infestation had spread through Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona to plague growers in California.

[clarification needed] On a national scale, the United States has suffered crop and ornamental plant damages in excess of $1 billion.

Common hosts are agricultural crops including tomatoes, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, melons, cotton, carrots, sweet potato, cucumber, and pumpkin, and ornamental plants such as poinsettia, crepe myrtle, garden roses, lantana, and lilies.

It can cause specific damage to certain host plants, like "silverleaf" on squash, irregular ripening of tomatoes, whitestalk in broccoli and cauliflower, white stem in poinsettia, and light root in carrots.

[15] Entomologists with the U.S. Arid-Land Agricultural Research Center identified the most common causes of death of the whitefly as predation by other insects, parasitism, and weather induced dislodgement.

These include members of the families Phytoseiidae, Coccinellidae, Syrphidae, Anthocoridae, Nabidae, and Miridae, Chrysopidae and Coniopterygidae.

[18] There are currently four species of predators that are commercially available for control of B. tabaci: Delphastus pusillus, Macrolophus caliginosus, Chrysoperla carnea, and C.

[18] D. pusillus is a species of small, shiny, black beetle which sucks out the contents of the silverleaf whitefly by piercing its exoskeleton.

The most commonly known pathogens to the whitefly pest are Paecilomyces fumosoroseus, Aschersonia aleyrodis, Verticillium lecanii, and Beauveria bassiana.

B. bassiana is only an effective biological control agent in conditions of low temperatures (maximum of 20 °C (68 °F)) and a humidity level greater than 96%.

[18] However, it can be concluded though that when the fungal pathogen is combined with an insecticide, the synergistic effect of the two will induce a higher mortality rate of the whitefly.

All of these oils cause direct mortality to immature life stages of the silverleaf whitefly on contact and reduce settling and ovipositon by adults when sprayed on plant leaves.

[19] This oil causes the silverleaf whitefly nymph to shrink in size and therefore detach from the tomato plant, leading to starvation.

Sugar apple seed oil is not phytotoxic to tomato plants of any concentrations and reduces the survival rate of the pest.

However, the insect growth regulator pyriproxyfen has been found successful in reducing whitefly populations on curbit plants including zucchini squash, cucumber, and pumpkin.

This insect growth regulator does not kill adult whiteflies, and has low toxicity to mammals, fish, birds and bumblebees.

The Light-Emitting Diode Equipped CC trap (LED-CC) was developed by plant physiologist Chang-Chi Chu and Thomas Henneberry.

Field studies conducted in Australia have shown that the use of floating row covers coupled with insect growth regulators increase the yield of harvested fruit and quality and reduce virus damage to cucurbits.

[22] When squash serves as a trap crop, the tomato yellow curl leaf virus can be controlled and limited.

Scientific experiments show in the fields that growing squash crops around the areas where tomato plants can be found is a useful manipulation in regulating the silverleaf whitefly population as well as the transmission of TYLCV.

Kousik examined different combinations of insecticides and silver plastic mulch that could be used to reduce the whitefly populations.