Miridae control using sex-pheromone traps. Modeling, analysis and simulations

Abstract

Cocoa mirid, Sahlbergella singularis, is known to be one of the major pests of cocoa in West Africa. In this paper, we consider a biological control method, based on mating disrupting, using artificial sex pheromones, and trapping, to limit the impact of mirids in plots. We develop and study a piece-wise smooth delayed dynamical system. Based on previous results, a theoretical analysis is provided in order to derive all possible dynamics of the system. We show that two main threshold parameters exist that will be useful to derive long term successful control strategies for different level of infestation. We illustrate and discuss our results when cacao pods production is either constant along the year or seasonal. To conclude, we provide future perspectives based on this work.