Mathematical modeling and analysis of biological control strategy of aphid population

Abstract

To study the biological control strategy of aphids, in this paper we propose host-parasitoid-predator models for the interactions among aphids, parasitic wasps and aphidophagous Coccinellids incorporating impulsive releases of Coccinellids, and then study the long-term control and limited time optimal control of aphids by adjusting release amount and release timing of Coccinellids. For the long-term control, the existence and stability of the aphid-eradication periodic solution are investigated and threshold conditions about the release amount and release period to ensure the ultimate extinction of the aphid population are obtained. For the limited-time control, three different optimal impulsive control problems are studied. A time rescaling technique and an optimization algorithm based on gradient are applied, and the optimal release amounts and timings of natural enemies are gained. Our simulations indicate that in the limited-time control, the optimal selection of release timing should be given higher priority compared with the release amount.

Keywords

• aphid population
• biological control
• long-term control
• limited-time control
• optimal control