'You can hear them': Thousands of dung beetles exchanged via post

Tom O'Malley facilitates the exchange of dung beetles between Tasmania and South Australia. (ABC News: Mackenzie Heard) More than 8,000 Bubas bison dung beetles have been sent from South Australia to Tasmania by express post, with the aim to increase calendar coverage of dung beetles in livestock-dense areas during the winter. In return, shipments of blue bomber dung beetles have been sent from Tasmania to South Australia to cover the Bubas bison's dormant seasons. The exchange has been going for five years and will be in place until the species become fully established in their new home states. Link copiedShareShare articleOn a brisk June morning, Tom O'Malley headed to his local post office to collect some unusual packages. Waiting in line, the landcare facilitator said he could "hear it buzzing from five or 10 metres away". To the surprise of post staff and other mailers, the packages contained thousands of live dung beetles. The live dung beetles are carefully packaged for transport. (ABC News: Mackenzie Heard) The 8,400 Bubas bison tunnelling dung beetles travelled via express post from Reedy Creek in southern South Australia to Burnie in Tasmania's north-west The packages are part of a yearly agricultural exchange that began five years ago, "a bit by accident". Farmers are hoping bigger dung beetle populations will help save them thousands of dollars on input costs. It all started when South Australian farmer Matthew Robertson read an article Mr O'Malley wrote about Geotrupes spiniger "blue bomber" dung beetles for the Cradle Coast Natural Resource Management (NRM) newsletter. Mr Robertson reached out, saying he was looking for some tunnelling dung beetles that were active during summer, and after chatting, the pair quickly realised they may be able to help each other. Mr Robertson had an established Bubas bison population on his property that was active during winter and spring, while Mr O'Malley had an abundance of blue bombers that were active during summer and autumn. The idea of a dung beetle exchange was born. Having dung beetle varieties that cycle through different times of the year ensures livestock manure is buried continuously. (ABC News: Mackenzie Heard) "Hopefully Matthew can benefit from a species we have a lot of here … when he doesn't have a lot of activity," Mr O'Malley said. "And conversely, we can hopefully benefit … from a species that he has an absolute abundance of over there." Dairy farmer Matthew Gunningham had a thousand of the Bubas bison dung beetles released at his property in Montumana in north-west Tasmania as part of the exchange. "As organic farmers, we have sort of very limited inputs that we can use, so we're always looking for ways to harness nature to make our farm more productive and more resilient," Mr Gunningham said. Matthew Gunningham has introduced Bubas bison dung beetles to his organic dairy farm. (ABC News: Mackenzie Heard) The beetles take the livestock dung and mix it with the soil, which Mr Gunningham said is "great for aeration and drainage". "Mixing the dung much more quickly with the soil and dragging it down further into the soil profile increases the amount of fertility that's available to the plants in the paddock," he said. These farmers' paddocks were stripped of healthy soils during the floods. Now there is hope dung beetles will help bring paddocks back to life. This is the third year Mr Gunningham has had Bubas bison beetles released at his property and he said he could see the population starting to establish. Mr O'Malley plans to keep releasing the species onto Tasmanian farms until the species has fully established. "We want to keep releasing them year after year to ensure that we can successfully establish Bubas bison in livestock dense districts in north-western Tasmania where we don't have them," Mr O'Malley said. Each species of dung beetle is highly active for only a part of the year. (ABC News: Mackenzie Heard) In Tasmania, Mr O'Malley begins the trapping process of blue bombers in early February. A nationwide project importing dung beetles lost an entire year of research when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. "That involves getting half a dozen traps out, getting a couple of big buckets of cow dung and putting a layer of it on top of the trap and putting it out just before dusk," he said. "Then the beetles will fly into that … they'll think it's a great big cow pad in a paddock and they'll tunnel through it. "They'll go through the mesh and into a plastic container and then I go out in the morning, collect them and put them in a tub and then hold them until we wash and send them." After counting and examining each beetle, Mr O'Malley begins the "meticulous" washing and packing process. "For six consecutive Sundays, I spend 12-15 hours cleaning and packing dung beetles," he said. The dung beetles are washed individually before being shipped in their thousands. (ABC News: Mackenzie Heard) Once they are sque

'You can hear them': Thousands of dung beetles exchanged via post

Key takeaways

More in international