Mathematical model for pest-insect control using mating disruption and trapping

TL;DR

This paper develops a mathematical model to evaluate pest insect control strategies combining mating disruption with trapping, identifying critical pheromone levels for effective population eradication in agricultural pest management.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ODE-based model integrating mating disruption and trapping, providing theoretical thresholds for pest population extinction.

Findings

Existence of a pheromone threshold for population eradication

Global stability of pest extinction above the threshold

Numerical validation of theoretical results

Abstract

Controlling pest insects is a challenge of main importance to preserve crop production. In the context of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs, we develop a generic model to study the impact of mating disruption control using an artificial female pheromone to confuse males and adversely affect their mating opportunities. Consequently the reproduction rate is diminished leading to a decline in the population size. For more efficient control, trapping is used to capture the males attracted to the artificial pheromone. The model, derived from biological and ecological assumptions, is governed by a system of ODEs. A theoretical analysis of the model without control is first carried out to establish the properties of the endemic equilibrium. Then, control is added and the theoretical analysis of the model enables to identify threshold values of pheromone which are practically interesting for field applications. In particular, we show that there is a threshold above which the global asymptotic stability of the trivial equilibrium is ensured, i.e. the population goes to extinction. Finally we illustrate the theoretical results via numerical experiments.