Mortality of Bemisia tabaci Biotype B (Sternorrhyncha: Aleyrodidae) Adults by Aliphatic and Aromatic Synthetic Sucrose Esters

The B-strain of Bemisia tabaci Gennadius is a key pest of several crops and chemical control is the main control method used by growers, although reduction in efficacy due to insecticide resistance has already been reported. The aim of this work was to investigate the insecticidal effect of an array of synthetic sucrose esters with the aliphatic and aromatic groups on whitefly adults. Sucrose butyrate, caprate, octanoate, palmitate, oleate, octaacetate, phthalate, benzoate, and sucrose diacetate hexaisobutyrate were tested. The solutions were prepared and applied on the adults caught on yellow sticky traps using the Potter spray tower. Long-chains sucrose aliphatic esters were more effective against the silverleaf whiteflies and the highest mortality was obtained with sucrose oleate and sucrose octanoate. Since these compounds were tensoactive, sodium dodecylsulphate was also tested for the comparison but no effect was observed. Sucrose butyrate and other aliphatic and aromatic sucrose polyesters showed negligible effect on the silverleaf whiteflies.