Dung Beetles – not a very glamorous job!

Mark Kesby
Projects Officer

You might have noticed those advertisements on the TV promoting the benefits of one cattle drench over others. One brand boasts that it is safe for Dung Beetles. The ad shows a beetle pushing along a large ball of cow poo! Do you wonder what’s this all about? And why are dung beetles important anyway?

Onitis pecuarius dung beetles, which are active late spring to autumn and
originated from summer rainfall regions of South Africa

To answer these questions lets go back to the basics. All native animals in Australia produce a small relatively dry poo. A whole range of insects and micro-organisms decompose that dung. One beetle in particular, the dung beetle, has its whole life cycle in dung. Adult beetles fly to fresh dung and burry balls of dung underground and lay their eggs in it. When the eggs hatch, the young eat that dung and eventually emerge from the ground and start the life cycle all over again.

Cow dung, on the other hand is large and usually very wet. Native dung beetles can’t utilise that dung. This leads to large amounts of dung on the paddocks and that familiar “ring of repugnance” where stock won’t eat. More importantly, fresh cow dung is the ideal breeding site for bush flies and buffalo flies. If that dung can be buried within two days, then the flies are denied their breeding site.

A number of years ago, the CSIRO imported several species of African dung beetles that can utilise large wet poo. Can you imagine how big an elephant poo is? These new species have gradually been spread around the country into areas where the climate is suitable. Species of dung beetles have different temperature and dung requirements. So different species will populate different areas and operate in different times of the year. If you have a range of species (preferably at least seven) they will bury dung most of the year.

Adult dung beetles feed on the fluid part of the dung which they extract by squeezing the dung in their mouthparts. Dung beetle larvae feed on the whole dung (fluid and fibre) which they cut and chew with their mouthparts. Dung beetles do not require any other food source not even water. The dung has been too dry recently, so the beetles haven’t been working. I’ve noticed large numbers of high dung pads on my paddocks and this is why. It gives some indication of how good a job the dung beetles are doing when they are working.

This takes me back to where we started. It is important to do whatever we can to promote dung beetles on our farms. Their biggest enemy is some of the chemicals we use on our cattle. It is important to check the dung beetle safety of any worm or external parasite treatment that you use. Repeated use of some chemicals will decimate populations.

As I said previously, several species are required for year round activity. Starter colonies of dung beetle species can be purchased. The first step is to find out what species you have and which part of the year they are working in. This is an excellent project for a local group of landholders to work together for mutual benefit.

Want more info? Give me a ring on 6741 8344.