Foul but Fabulous: How Dung Beetles Save the Day

Unsung heroes

G’day

A couple of years ago in early December I got a Christmas present of a colony of 20,000 live doggie dung beetles.

The post office sent me a notice saying to urgently pick up a parcel at the counter. It was such a surprise not just for me but also for the woman who fetched the box from out the back and carried it to the counter. Upon depositing it on the counter in front of both of us, she screamed so loud that everyone in the shop turned to see.

The box was see-through plastic and we could clearly see black crawling beetles and some dirt. Thousands of them. It was a bit scary like an infestation of something from a scifi movie.

I took them home and emptied the box in my big dog yard and covered them with milk crates and lots of leaves. I tried to water them regularly but we had a stinking hot summer and water was in short supply. I was budgeting the water and soon I only had enough for the animals and myself.

For about two years I didn’t see any activity and sadly thought they had not survived the summer.

But this year I saw some activity around some dog poo and realised they had made it. I have seen them (or should I say, evidence of them) in my other dog yard also. And now doggie dung is disappearing daily. So they must be very established. Yeehaa.

There are 3 different types of dung beetles – the famous Rollers, the humble Dwellers and the Mighty Burrowers. Of course there are tens of thousands of species of these beetles worldwide.

My darlings are the Mighty Burrowers they don’t like the spot light like their cousins the Rollers so I never really see them. I just see a bit of dog poop jumping or I notice that daily the dog poop is getting smaller. If I move the dog poop I see a hole under it leading to their tunnel.

The beetles don’t just make the yard clean—they turn dog dung into food for themselves and fertilizer for the plants. Not only do they clean up after the dogs, but they also improve the soil.

After the beetles’ hard work, the backyard goes from "ew" to "wow!" It’s cleaner, greener, and completely free of dog poo. Except for the newly deposited contributions my dogs make every morning.

How They Do It (I hear you ask). Well, they use their powerful legs to break a piece of the poop off and pull it into their underground hideouts for a tasty snack or stash it away for future use. With specialized claws and a strong exoskeleton, these beetles are built for the job. They may be small, but they’re the bulldozers of the insect world when it comes to cleaning up manure.

Doggie dung might seem disgusting to us, but to a dung beetle, it’s like a five-star meal. They break it down, turning it into essential nutrients that enrich the soil. Bon appétit!

The beetles work together in groups, their teamwork is impressive.

Dung beetles play a very important role turning animal dung into nutrients for plants worldwide. They dig the world’s animal poop into the ground then microscopic organisms in the ground break-down the buried poop, making the nutrients available for plants. Burying the manure also reduces the breeding sites for some fly pests and other parasites.

Australia has several native and introduced dung beetle species. There are about 250 kinds of scarab beetle busying themselves cleaning-up the dung left by native marsupials. But even the largest kangaroos leave only small, dry and fibrous pellets. These beetles were not equipped for the large sloppy manure of cows etc.

When Europeans introduced cattle, sheep and horses into Australia the native beetles were unable to cope so about fifty years ago they introduced dung beetles from countries with large native herbivores. And that’s what I think I’ve got for the dog’s poop.

I have always had native ones in other parts of the property where wombats roam. I’ve often seen wombat dropping dancing around being pulled into a hole. And sometimes I see a cube of wombat poo with a big round hole in it. Looks funny.

One of the many reasons I love all dung beetles is that they are astronomers and can see the solar sky pattern, and even a lunar pattern at night, and use it to guide them in a straight line when they are walking home etc. When they look at the sky, they see patterns of polarization. They use the Milky Way to navigate. That great band of light serves as an orienting line for them. Following the Milky Way works better in southern hemisphere where the brightest parts of our galaxy are high in the sky. Lucky that’s where we are.

There are statues to dung beetles all over the world

Unfortunately the person who gave me the Colony as a present can’t find the paperwork so I don’t know what variety mine are. And a look on the internet now doesn’t even show anyone selling them anymore.

All I know is they do their job and I don’t ever have to pick up dog poo. YEHAAAA