TEXTILE TECHNOLOGY Mitigation of Whitefly Honeydew Levels on Cotton Lint via Thermal and Citric Acid Treatment

Cotton contaminated by insect honeydew, termed sticky cotton, is a major concern to the tex-tile industry. There are currently no methods to remediate the contaminated cotton before arrival at the textile mill, and if not carefully handled it may result in machine shutdown. A method for handling sticky cotton prior to processing is described in this work that involves the addition of a chemical cata-lyst to the contaminated cotton and subsequent heat treatment. Results show a decrease in honeydew sugar levels, indicating that the method may be used to eliminate stickiness on contaminated cotton so that processing of the cotton will not lead to mill shutdown