Dung Beetle Tour of the Central Tablelands
The great news is that we have confirmed at least 12 species of dung beetle actively working in our area!
Building our Future - LLCI001-022
The issue
Dung Beetles have the ability to improve soil health by burying dung. These little critters literally take dung down to depths of 60cm and create tunnels that improve aeration, water infiltration and overall pasture productivity. The bonus is that adult dung beetles feed on dung juices, which is in direct competition to the Australian Bush Fly. Dung beetles are soil and climate specific, therefore need a suite of species to enable dung to be buried all year round. It is our challenge to identify which species are actively working in our region, and start introducing species to fill the gaps.
The solution
Bernard Doube of Dung Beetle Solutions Australia has a wealth of knowledge and experience with dung beetle monitoring, identification and management.
Bern conducted a Dung Beetle Tour of Bathurst on 5th April and Molong on 6th April 2018. We organised people to set 'dung beetle traps' and toured about, checking the traps to see what beetles were working at that time.
The impact
We had 27 participants over the two days and visited six farms. We found a total of 12 species, which was a fabulous result given the extremely dry seasonal conditions. We practiced identifying the different species at each site and talked about management and other issues, such as drenching, that affect dung beetle survival.
Learnings
Central Tablelands Landcare believes that people working together on a problem can make learning more meaningful and memorable. Having a group of people traveling around visiting different farmers is a very effective way of engaging people in the learning process.
Key facts
- Dung beetles improve soil health
- 12 species are successfully working in the Central Tablelands
- We need to monitor from late spring to early autumn to detect activity
- We need to monitor the success of any dung beetle introductions