UK: Dung beetles.

[m0lsx]

While at the Bedford show, I brought a few dung beetles off TSS. And on arrival home did some home work into care needs.


I had no idea that the UK had 60 species of Dung Beetle. Ours are burrowers & dwellers (that is they dwell in the dung. And they do not roll balls of dung around. But they are an important part of the livestock farmers eco system. And the UK species are reasonably diverse too. Volinus sticticus prefers horse or sheep dung in the shade and Onthophagus joannae is a sun loving beetle that favours sheep dung on light soils.

I found the following information sheet, if anyone is interested.

https://dungbeetlemap.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/dump-uk-dungbeetle-general.pdf

 

[Jeef]

I would love to keep dung beetles! Mostly because I have an incredibly juvenile sense of humor. That aside, some of them are quite beautiful.

The catch for me, however, is sourcing the dung! I've read you have to find a source that doesn't get antibiotics and the like? I can drive 5 minuets in any direction and hit a cow farm, but I can't see myself going door to door, interrupting the farmers lives to ask what meds do they use on their cows and oh by the way can I have a cow pie or two? Or even worse, getting caught just stealing one because I'm too ashamed to ask!

That is a lot funnier in my head than it reads. Once again, juvenile sense of humor. I'm relatively certain finding a good source would be next to impossible for me.

That said, best of luck! I'm genuinely envious!

 

[m0lsx]

Horse dung, I have been told is fine & antibiotics in farm stock, is exactly the same problem that is facing British dung beetles.