The whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) is a key agricultural pest in many regions of the world, and has been a destructive pest in China during the past two decades. B. tabaci is extremely polyphagous, feeding on hundreds of host plants, causing direct and indirect damage. Direct feeding by adults and nymphs induces physiological disorders in host plants, resulting in smaller production, shedding of leaves, and death in immature plants. The honeydew produced by the nymphs often causes stunting by promoting the growth of black sooty mold on leaves and reducing photosynthesis. However, the main damage is indirect: B. tabaci can transmit more than 100 plant viruses that damage many commercial plants. B.tabaci has distinct host plant preferences, and knowing these can serve as a basis for integrated pest management programs, especially because resistance to insecticides by B. tabaci is on the increase. Here we present the results of an exhaustive survey of host plants in Northern China. A systematic field survey was conducted on 81 plant species to investigate their suitability as host plants for B. tabaci at Langfang, Hebei Province. There were three plots for each plant, with a size of 16 m² (4 m×4 m) for each plot, 243 plots were randomly arranged in total. Infection rate was characterised by the number of individuals per 100 cm² leaf and number of individuals per whole leaves. A total of 37 species of the surveyed plants, including Zea mays L., Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench and Setaria italica (L.) Beauv. were not damaged by B.tabaci. Plant species belonging to the families Rosaceae, Nyctaginaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Linaceae, Cleomaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Rutaceae, Asclepiadaceae (surveyed one species in these families), Polygonaceae (surveyed two species), Cruciferae (surveyed four species), Poaceae (surveyed five species) were not damaged by B. tabaci. Forty-four of the investigated plant species were suitable hosts for B. tabaci. The plants from Lamiaceae, Leguminosae, Asteraceae, Convolvulaceae and Malvaceae supported the higher whitefly densities than the other plant families in our survey results. Most of the surveyed species in the Lamiaceae family were damaged, and on more than 60% of these plants, the infection rate reached grade 4 (> 50 individuals per 100 cm² leaf). Whitefly densities on these host plants varied widely. The whitefly occurred mostly on Mentha arvensis L., Schizonepeta tenuifolia Briq, Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch, Mentha canadensis L., Leonurus japonicus Houtt, Crotalaria pallida Ait., Chrysanthemum paludosum Poir, Achyranthes bidentata Blume, Oenothera erythrosepala Borb., Echium vulgare L., Medicago sativa L. and Ocimum basilicum L.. The infection rate on these plants was grade 4 (> 50 individuals per 100 cm² leaf). Althaea rosea (L.) Cavan, Helianthus annuus L. and Nicotiana tabacum L. had somewhat lower densities per 100 cm² leaf, but themselves being much larger than the former host plant species, whole plants supported large whitefly populations. H. annuus, Z. may and S. bicolor are widely planted in cotton production areas in northern China, and the economic losses caused by whitefly infection on these plants was relatively low. H. annuus can potentially be used as a trap crop, while Z. may and S. bicolor can be used as barrier crops to manage whiteflies in cotton fields.