Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Homoptera:Aleyrodidae) were sampled in 1988 in commercial cotton fields in the Imperial Valley, CA. Cotton lint samples taken after defoliation were tested for minicard stickiness and reducing sugars. The number of B. tabaci produced in the fields increased significantly with an increase in number of pesticide treatments. Fields treated with pink bollworm, Pectinophore gossypiella (Saunders), pheromone (gossyplure) to reduce the number of pesticide applications produced significantly fewer B. tabaci. A significant relationship was determined between B. tabaci population density and stickiness that will allow testing of economic injury and action thresholds on cotton.