A STOCHASTIC-MODEL FOR THE STERILE MALE TECHNIQUE

Given a population whose growth pattern is hypothesised to follow that of the simple birth and death process, its dynamics in the presence o f sterilised males is examined. It is assumed that the method of steri lisation may have lowered the relative mating competitiveness, surviva l, and longevity of the treated males and the effect of this on the co ntrolled population dynamics is considered. Two quantities are defined and derived, namely, N(t), the expected number of insects alive at ti me t, and T, the time to extinction. The probability of extinction wit hin a fixed time interval (0, T0) is also derived and used to determin e the number of sterile males that would successfully cause extinction .