Effect of increased global temperatures on biological control of green lacewings on the spread of mealybugs in a cassava field: a simulation study

Abstract

Even though the effect of release frequency of green lacewings in controlling the spread of mealybugs in a cassava field was investigated by Promrak and Rattanakul in 2015, the effect of increased global temperature was not taken into account. In this work, cellular automata and Monte Carlo simulation are employed in order to study the effect of an increased global temperature on the life cycles of mealybugs and green lacewings which in turn effects the efficacy of the biological control of the spread of mealybugs. Computer simulations are carried out at different temperatures so that an efficient biological control of the spread of mealybugs in a cassava field is obtained.