Optimal strategies to diminish a pest population via bilinear controls

In this work we model and analyze two control strategies to diminish a pest population using traps. The action of any trap depends on its age. Both problems contain bilinear control rates. The large-time behavior of the model with time-periodic inflow is investigated. The first control strategy deals with a finite horizon problem while the second one is related to a time-periodic problem. We obtain Pontryagin's principle for both control problems. A special attention is given to the periodic problem. Pontryagin's principle is used to derive a conceptual gradient-type algorithm to approximate the optimal solution. Numerical tests are given.