Pest management through habitat design

Mathematical modeling and computer simulations used for investigating the role of habitat design parameters that determine rates of successful host location by pests which use simple search strategies are presented. The objective is to examine the theoretical basis of patterns of variability on infestation generated by the modeling and noted in the literature for other pest/host plant interactions. In particular, the arrangement of host plants in patchy rather than uniform distributions may limit the ability of key pests to find their host plants. The authors present modeling and simulation results supporting this conclusion analyze how this reduced level of infestation is achieved and define patchiness as a property of habitat design which reflects pest search dynamics as well as plant dispersion