The problem of sticky cotton is discussed and consequences in the ginning and textile industries are explored. The various causes of sticky cotton are enumerated and their backgrounds are described. Action by the cotton industry and the research and extension communities is described.

The problem of sticky cotton has been endemic in desert areas of the United States for a number of years. Very serious stickiness problems, on the other hand, have been experienced in desert climates of other cotton producing countries. In recent years, the poinsettia strain of the sweetpotato whitefly is thought to have entered the United States in a shipment of poinsettias from north Africa. The insect has spread with great rapidity to many areas of the cotton belt, very severe infestations being found in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, Arizona and the Imperial Valley of California during the 1991 season. In those areas, other crops (lettuce, melons and sugar beets) are also infested by the insect. The plant juices that pass through the whiteflies body as it sucks the plant sap, contain high concentrations of sugar which, if deposited on open bolls, cause the fiber to stick to textile machinery during processing. It is estimated that a severe infestation of whiteflies can release 350 to 450 pounds of sugar per acre.