Dung Beetle activity assists in:

• Reducing nutrient run off into dams, streams and waterways.
• Reducing Algal blooms in waterways.
• Increasing water infiltration into soil.
• Burying dung and thus nutrients into plant root zone.
• Increasing soil fertility.
• Reducing the need for chemical fertilizers.
• Reducing pasture fouling.
• Tunneling activity of beetles aerates soil.
• Rapid burial of dung pads removes fly breeding habitat and reduces water content in the dung so that larval incubation does not occur.
• Reducing bushfly and buffalo fly numbers.
• Reducing parasite loads on livestock.

Dung beetles shred or disperse dung.

Ball rollers do this by removing wads of dung/ pieces of the pad and rolling it away – it may then be anchored to pieces of vegetation or buried.

Tunnellers bury the dung in the ground to depths of between a few centimetres to 1 metre.

The benefits include:

ECOSYSTEM

• Improving water quality into dams and storages.
• Reducing Algal blooms in waterways.
• Reducing chemicals in the environment.
• Reducing the need for chemicals in meat products.
• Increasing water infiltration into the soil.
• Reducing nutrient run off into dams, streams and waterways.
• Increasing soil fertility.
• Increasing available plant nutrients .
• Burying dung and thus nutrients into plant root zone.
• Creating tunnels into the soil both when burying dung and on emergence of new beetles.
• Reducing pasture fouling.


HEALTH

• Reducing water contamination and algal blooms.
• Reducing chemicals in meat products.
• Reducing parasite loads on livestock.
• Interrupting the life cycle of some internal parasites.
• Reducing bushfly and buffalo fly numbers.


AESTHETIC

• Reducing bushfly populations.
• Removing pads from pasture.
• Reducing algal blooms from nutrient run off into dams, streams and waterways.
• Rapid burial of dung pads removing the fly breeding habitat and reducing the water content of the dung so that larval incubation does not occur.