Speaker
Description
The oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis, is a major invasive pest and classified as a quarantine pest by the European Union. First recorded in La Réunion in April 2017, it is now established and causes serious damage, particularly in mango orchards. Due to the high biodiversity of La Réunion, chemical control is highly restricted, so only non-chemical tools can be used, such as the Male Annihilation Technique (using Methyl-eugenol traps) and soil entomopathogen fungi applied via irrigation systems to target the pupal and adult stages. Additionally, the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) has been under investigation since 2020. It consists of mass rearing, irradiation, and release of sterilized insects to compete with wild populations, reducing reproduction rates.
All these control approaches have been studied using mathematical models \cite{bliman2025feasibility,bliman2025sterile,dumont2025}. The aim of this talk is to present new mathematical results, illustrated with simulations, where the combination of these control tools is analyzed to derive optimal strategies in space and time.
The authors acknowledge the support of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). YD acknowledges the support of the BactroTIS project, grant number ANR-25-ECOM-0031-01, and the DST/NRF M3B2 SARChI Chair at the University of Pretoria (Grant 82770).
Bibliography
@article{bliman2025feasibility,
title={Feasibility and optimisation results for elimination by mass trapping in a metapopulation model},
author={Bliman, Pierre-Alexandre and De la Tousche, Manon and Dumont, Yves},
journal={Applied Mathematical Modelling},
volume={144},
pages={116047},
year={2025},
publisher={Elsevier}
}
@article{bliman2025sterile,
title = {Sterile Insect Technique in a n-patch system with Allee effect and mass trapping: modeling, analysis and simulations},
author = {Bliman, Pierre-Alexandre and de la Tousche, Manon and Dumont, Yves},
journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.07225},
year = {2025}
}
@article{dumont2025,
title = {On the {I}mprovement of the {S}terile {I}nsect {T}echnique by {E}ntomopathogenic {F}ungi: {I}mpact of {R}esidual {F}ertility and {R}e-mating {B}ehaviour},
author = {Dumont, Yves},
year = {2025},
journal = {Bulletin of Mathematical Biology},
volume = {87},
number = {151},
doi = {10.1007/s11538-025-01529-8}
}
