New Insecticides for Management of Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl, a Virus Vectored by the Silverleaf Whitefly, Bemisia tabaci

Greenhouse studies using a randomized complete block design were carried out to evaluate the effect of six insecticides on transmission of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) by the silverleaf whitefly, Bemisia tabaci biotype B Gennadius (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) to tomato, Lycopersicon esculentum (Miller) (Solanales: Solanaceae), seedlings that were inoculated with whiteflies from a TYLCV colony in cages 3, 7, or 14 d after treatment with insecticide. The purpose was to reveal differences in residual efficacy of four materials that are nearing registration for use on tomato—cyazypyr, flupyradifurone, pyrafluquinazon, and sulfoxaflor—and to compare them with two established insecticides, pymetrozine and a zeta-cypermethrin/bifenthrin combination. Differences in efficacy were expected because these six materials represent five distinct modes of action and both contact and systemic materials. Percentage of tomato seedlings expressing virus symptoms tended to be lowest in seedlings treated with flupyradifurone. The zeta-cypermethrin/bifenthrin insecticide demonstrated comparable efficacy to flupyradifurone in some trials at 3 and 7 d after treatment inoculations, but not the 14 d after treatment inoculation. Pyrafluquinazon was not statistically different from cyazypyr or sulfoxaflor in percentage of plants with virus symptoms in any trial. Percentage virus in the cyazypyr and sulfoxaflor treatments was not statistically different in the 3 and 7 d after treatment inoculations. Among seedlings treated with insecticide, percentage with virus symptoms tended to be highest in the seedlings treated with pymetrozine.