Annotation of the doctoral dissertation
Insect pests destroy about 11% of agricultural crops worldwide, and millions of tons of insecticides are used each year to control them. Unfortunately, such massive use of these chemical agents pollutes water and soil, causes ecosystem imbalance, harms the health of humans and animals, and reduces biodiversity across the globe. One of the main goals of the European Union is to reduce the amount of pesticides used; therefore, alternative control methods are being sought. In biological control, entomopathogenic fungi are used to regulate the abundance of insect pests. The aim of this doctoral research is to determine the distribution of entomopathogenic fungi in Lithuania and to select fungal strains that could be applied against pests.