Game theory as a conceptual framework for managing insect pests

For over 100 years it has been recognized that insect pests
evolve resistance to chemical pesticides. More recently,
managers have advocated restrained use of pesticides, crop
rotation, the use of multiple pesticides, and pesticide-free
sanctuaries as resistance management practices. Game theory
provides a conceptual framework for combining the resistance
strategies of the insects and the control strategies of the pest
manager into a unified conceptual and modelling framework.
Game theory can contrast an ecologically enlightened
application of pesticides with an evolutionarily enlightened one.
In the former case the manager only considers ecological
consequences whereas the latter anticipates the evolutionary
response of the pests. Broader applications of this game theory
approach include anti-biotic resistance, fisheries management
and therapy resistance in cancer.