Pest Control: Operations and Systems Analysis in Fruit Fly Management

Book excerpt: These are the proceedings of an Advanced Research Workshop (ARW), sponsored by the NATO Science Panel, entitled "Pest Control: Operations and Systems Analysis in Fruit Fly Management". The ARW was held in Bad Windsheim, Germany during the week of 5 August 1985. The purpose of the ARW was to bring together scientists who are interested in fruit fly problems, but who usually do not have an opportunity to speak with each other, for an intense week of interdisciplinary collaboration. In particular, the group present at the ARW contained a mix of biologists, field ecologists, mathematical modellers, operational program managers, economists and social scientists. Each group has its own professional meetings at which fruit fly problems are discussed, but the point of the ARW was to learn about the problem from the perspective of other fields, which are equally important for the ultimate management of the fruit fly problems. (A list of attendees follows this preface. ) It appears that the ARW successfully met its objective of bringing together a group for interdisciplinary considerations of the problems; I hope that the proceedings do as well. The ARW was structured with formal lectures in the mornings and workshops in the afternoons. For the morning lectures, four different topics were chosen: 1) basic biology and ecology, 2) trapping and detection, 3) control and eradication, and 4) policy issues. Each morning, one lecture from each area was presented.