Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T15:08:50.621Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

INSECTICIDE RESISTANCE AND THE EVALUATION OF CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR AN INSECT POPULATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

C. Robert Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Illinois, Urbana
J. C. Headley
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri, Columbia

Abstract

The development of physiological resistance in insect populations of agricultural and public health importance to insecticides and other methods of control has taken on proportions of increasing importance. In this paper, a mathematical pest population model is presented which can be used for dynamic economic and ecological evaluation of alternative control strategies. Because of the unique nature of pest populations, the model is not directly applicable to all actual problems. However, the model is an illustration of a whole class of models that promises to remove pest control strategies from the category of ad hoc decisions.

For those empirical problems for which a benefit function can be defined, dynamic programming is suggested as a method for determining an optimal strategy over time. When it is difficult or impossible to specify a benefit function, which is frequently the case, it is suggested that Monte Carlo techniques, applied to the pest control strategies of interest, be used to determine the effects on the pest population over time.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, A. W. A. 1971. Pest resistance to pesticides. In Vol. 1, Part II, White-Stevens, Robert (Ed)., Pesticides in the environment. Marcel Dekker, New York.Google Scholar
Headley, J. C. and Lewis, J. N.. 1967. The pesticide problem: An economic approach to public policy. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore.Google Scholar
Howard, R. A. 1962. Dynamic programming and Markovian processes. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Li, C. C. 1955. Population genetics. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, C. R. 1972. Dynamic economic evaluation of alternative pest control strategies. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Missouri, Columbia.Google Scholar
Tou, J. T. 1963. Optimal design of digital control systems. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar