A review and Extension of Economic Pest Control Model Incorporating Multi-Pest Species and Insect Resistance

Most pest control models are extensions of classical production theory which states that a producer will increase the use of a variable input to the point where the marginal cost of the input is equal to the marginal benefit. There have been several useful and sophisticated extensions of this model that incorporate complexities of agricultural production such as pesticide externalities, insect resistance and multiple­ insect species. These extensions have generally been developed incrementally from separate applications of pest-control economics to diverse agricultural situations. There is a need, however, to develop a general framework that combines some of these important extensions to classical production theory into the one model. The aim of this paper is to develop a general framework in which the situations of insect resistance and multi-pest species are examined simultaneously. This framework will form the basis of a bio-economic computer simulation which will examine the pest­ control decision of producers in the tick-infested area of Queensland where both cattle-tick (Boophilus microplus) and buffalo-fly (Haematobia irritans exigua) are simultaneously effecting cattle, and resistance to pesticides occurs with use in both pests. The model is developed from a general framework by Harper and Zilberman (1989). The paper also examines some of the issues and possible implications that may emerge from the model.