Creepy, Crawly, Dirty, Beneficial Bugs
They’re creepy. They’re crawly. They’re annoying. They’re dirty. And sometimes we have to be okay with them.
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.
We are talking BUGS today and, specifically they apt-named “dung beetle.” Peter Willadsen has just completed his master’s work at North Carolina State University. Recently he presented at a regional beef tour about the benefits of the bug…
“They’re really good at sort of cleaning up dung and recycling those nutrients to be sure that that doesn’t just run off in the rain or anything, but those nutrients are put back into the soil.”
Willadsen says that they’re also really good at turning over and aerating the soil…
“So really good at stimulating healthy pasture growth and things like that.”
And, because the dunk Beatle is going in and using that dung to raise their young, they’re really good competitors with pests like face flies or horn flies…
“The beetles are often the first ones that can get to the dung pat and, if you have a healthy beetle population, they can often establish and sort of out-compete those pesky flies.”
So the dung beetle….funny name, good bug, still a little bit creepy. Thank you to Peter Willadsen, a masters student at North Carolina University taking his research to the field.
