Whiteflies are major agricultural pests in greenhouses worldwide. They are killed in billions by pesticides, yet their control raises questions about proportionality and the welfare of tiny lives.
Whitefly control in intensive horticulture involves the routine killing of enormous numbers of small insects. Whether whiteflies experience suffering is uncertain, but the same considerations that apply to aphids apply here: scale matters under the precautionary principle. Chemical pesticide approaches kill non-target insects and may cause slower death than targeted biological control. Parasitoid wasp control, while effective, also raises welfare questions for the wasp larvae and their hosts.