In the Arizona cotton insect arena, the most notorious villains are Lygus bugs and sweetpotato or silverleaf whiteflies. Lygus damage squares with their piercing-sucking mouthparts, which can adversely affect potential yield. Whiteflies are also piercing, sucking pests. But they primarily cause cotton quality loss by depositing a sticky, sugary secretion called "honeydew" on the cotton leaves that ultimately drips onto the fiber in open bolls.
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