Globally, some insect species threaten human and animal health and biodiversity directly and by vectoring diseases. This seminar illustrates how large area, precision control of pests of agriculture, environment and people change the future for those communities involved. Dr Walther Enkerlin, of the United Nations Joint FAO/IAEA Centre, shares how, after Bachelors and Masters degrees from Mexican universities, his PhD at Imperial embedded the concept of strategic decision making as a framework for his career, including the economics of insect pest control for national, regional and international campaigns. His joint research with the late Professor Mumford resulted in a Benefit-Cost Analysis tool that is widely applied to estimate the return on investment of pest control options including the area-wide sterile insect technique (SIT). The basics of SIT, as well as case studies of large-scale pest control interventions based on prospective economic analysis or confirmed through retrospective analysis, are recounted to demonstrate the impact of multidisciplinary research at what is now the Centre for Environmental Policy.