Modelling the emergence of social-bird biological controls to mitigate invasions of the spotted lanternfly and similar invasive pests

The spotted lanternfly is an emerging global invasive insect pest. Due to a lack of natural enemies where it is invasive, human intervention is required. Extensive management has been applied but the spread continues. Recently, the idea of bird-based biological controls has re-emerged and shown effective in studies. However, it is questionable, if birds are able to effectively control unfamiliar and occasionally toxic invasive pests in short timeframes. Unless, perhaps, the birds are effective social learners and toxicity of the invaders is rare. Here, we introduce a mathematical model for social learning in a great tit-like bird to investigate conditions for the emergence of a collective biological control of a pest that is occasionally toxic, like the lanternfly. We find that the social observation rate relative to the proportion of toxic lanternfly dictate when collective biological controls will emerge. We also implement the social learning model into a model of collective motion in bird-like animals, and find that it produces results consistent with the mathematical model. Our work suggests that social birds may be useful in managing the spotted lanternfly, and that removing the toxicity-inducing preferred host of the lanternfly should be a priority to facilitate this.