Kaiser, Deborah Bacher, Sven Mène-Saffrané, Laurent Grabenweger, Giselher 2019 Solar radiation is assumed to be a major factor limiting the efficacy of entomopathogenic fungi used as biocontrol agents in open field applications. We evaluated 12 natural UV‐protective co‐formulants for their effect on the survival of UV‐ exposed Beauveria bassiana spores on agar plates, colza leaf discs and in the field.RESULTS: Colony‐forming unit (CFU) counts of unformulated conidia on agar plates and leaf discs dropped to ≤ 50% after exposure to UV radiation. The highest UV protection was achieved with humic acid, which provided > 90% protection of UV‐ B‐exposed conidia in laboratory experiments. In the field, 10% humic acid increased spore persistence up to 87% at 7 days after application. Sesame and colza oil also provided high UV protection in both assays (> 73% and > 70%, respectively).CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that it is possible to increase the persistence of B. bassiana spores under exposure to UV radiation by formulation with natural UV‐protective additives. UV protectants might, therefore, increase the efficacy of entomopathogenic fungi as biocontrol agents in open field applications. application/pdf https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/307474 https://folia.unifr.ch/documents/307474/files/bac_ens.pdf eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1002/ps.5209 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess License undefined Pest Management Science. - 2019, vol. 75, no. 2, p. 556–563 info:eu-repo/classification/udc/57 Efficiency of natural substances to protect Beauveria bassiana conidia from UV radiation http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501