Midwest farmers raise millions of chickens, hogs, and cattle.MADURAI (India) - Mr Ganeshan Palsamy lays out his wares on a white sheet on the red cement floor of his two-room home in the southern Indian city of Madurai. That many animals produce a lot of milk, meat, and manure. But some little-known insects can put that manure to good use. Wearing latex gloves and digging through a sloppy patch of cow poop on his farm in central Missouri, farmer Ralph Voss spotted his target.Īll they want in exchange is some dung for dinner. “Okay, here we go!” he said excitedly, plucking out a shiny insect the size of a sunflower seed – a dung beetle.ĭespite their disgusting homes, dung beetles are worth searching for – it has been estimated that they save U.S. farmers hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Some researchers suggest that they could be worth even more, and are searching for new species meant to maximize that value. When dung beetles bury manure in the ground, research shows that they can increase grazing area, improve soil nutrients and water absorption, and even reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Perhaps most importantly, they prevent parasites and flies from using the dung to reproduce. Most of the dung beetles in the Midwest, however, work too slowly to meet farmers’ needs, and faster-working dung beetles commonly found in other parts of the U.S. Wayne Bailey, a researcher at the University of Missouri, is planning a project to research and breed dung beetle species for Midwest farmers. He believes dung beetles are an untapped resource that, with a little help, could join earthworms and honey bees as major contributors to Midwest agriculture. “What we really need are dung beetle species that fill in the whole season,” Bailey said. “So we would like to build those populations that have adapted to the colder winters to build up the numbers and spread across the state.”ĭung beetles get their food by sucking the juices out of fresh dung. Though they are best known for rolling away dung in a big ball, only a small percentage of dung beetles are actually true “rollers.” Most beetles bury their dung in underground tunnels for their offspring to eat.
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