A hybrid state space modelling study on effects of cultivation management on biological pest control for strawberry plants

Thrips is an important pest for strawberry in a greenhouse conditions. Management of fruit production and harvesting are significant and work as periodic disturbances for both the pest and natural enemies. Also, for consistently practicing cultivation management and biological control, it is important to apply appropriate metapopulation model to release sufficient aspects of the enemies' behavior in proper arrangement depending on disturbances. In hybrid state model, these phenomena are given to examine effects of periodic disturbances on efficiency of biological control. The model is obtained by using a continuous-time model and events modeling methods. This procedure provides an implicit system of difference equations. The model is then designed in an implicit way instead of obtaining first an explicit model of the system. By using this mathematical model, we will illustrate effects of periodic disturbances on pest suppression and investigate some important aspects of the biological control approach by considering cultivation management.