Mathematical Model of Pest Control Using Different Release Rates of Sterile Insects and Natural Enemies

Abstract

In the framework of integrated pest management, biological control through the use of living organisms plays important roles in suppressing pest populations. In this paper, the complex interaction between plants and pest insects is examined under the intervention of natural enemies releases coupled with sterile insects technique. A set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations is developed in terms of optimal control model considering characteristics of populations involved. Optimal control measures are sought in such a way they minimize the pest density simultaneously with the control efforts. Three different strategies relating to the release rate of sterile insects and predators as natural enemies, namely, constant, proportional, and saturating proportional release rates, are examined for the attainability of control objective. The necessary optimality conditions of the control problem are derived by using Pontryagin maximum principle, and the forward–backward sweep method is then implemented to numerically calculate the optimal solution. It is shown that, in an environment consisting of rice plants and brown planthoppers as pests, the releases of sterile planthoppers and ladybeetles as natural enemies can deteriorate the pest density and thus increase the plant biomass. The release of sterile insects with proportional rate and the release of natural enemies with constant rate are found to be the most cost-effective strategy in controlling pest insects. This strategy successfully decreases the pest population about 35 percent, and thus increases the plant density by 13 percent during control implementation.