Bubus Bubalus

It has certainly been a challenging, confusing and somewhat disappointing year for our breeding program. Those who received bubalus in August 2021 have not reported any hatchings at all. In light of this, I recently wrote to Greg Dalton, the breeder and supplier of our beetles, to ask whether we should continue placing a fresh dung pat in to see if any beetles emerge.

He suggests we still put 1 kg of fresh dung fortnightly until the end December. Make sure dung has been stored 3 days before putting it out as at this time of year the small summer beetles will very quickly find their way to fresh dung pats and these will hopefully have drowned after 3 days. Better still collect fresh dung early before the sun is up and the beetles are awake.

Grass is growing like crazy and we still need to keep this down in the tents so we can observe any beetle activity.

Those who received bubalus this spring are reporting that they are still consuming dung and most people are on to the second lap of their tents. Last year we found dead beetles in the tent towards the end of December and that dung burial ceased in early January. But who would know this year? It would be good if you could please take note and record when this happens. Beetles will then have laid their eggs which hopefully will hatch early next spring. Thank you to all who have been part of this breeding program. Hopefully you are willing to hang in there for another year in the hope that the delayed hatching of bubalus may result in a bumper year next spring. If you do not want to continue and have tents you would like to return please let me know and we can arrange to pick these up.

Onthophagus Vacca

Those who received vacca in January 2022 have had very mixed hatchings this spring.However my vacca started hatching yesterday on the 12th December. This hatching is part of the vacca lifecycle and these F1 beetles are the result of the breeding process. These newly hatched beetles will only feed, not breed, and then remain in the ground until re-emerging next spring so feed them up well.Luckily I had just cut the grass and put fresh dung in the tent but was not expecting any action for a couple of weeks as last year they did not hatch till early January.

Greg Dalton from Creation Care has made the following suggestions regarding newly hatched beetles.

1. Catch,count and transfer to another tent (more work but better data)
2. Feed in the same tent and wait till spring 2023 to release. (Less work and less information
   but still gets the Beatles through till spring 2023.)

On 28^th September we received six packages of 140 Bubus bubalus and 2 lots of 1000 vacca from Creation Care , South. Australia. These were delivered to our new breeders who have housed them in their “Farmer Nurseries” where they will be fed dung until they have bred and buried eggs.

The bubalus generally feed until early January and then die. Hopefully the next generation will hatch next Spring and will have multiplied to numbers big enough for a paddock release. However, as we have seen this year, Mother Nature still has the upper hand and possibly because of the unseasonably cold wet winter/spring we have had no beetles hatch at all yet this spring. Even Greg Dalton has had very limited hatchings and has not been able to supply all the beetles we had ordered. He says in this case the beetles may hatch a year later after a 2 year diapause (beetle hibernation).

The 2 lots of vacca are being fed for about a month in enclosures to ensure egg burial then they will be paddock released with plenty of dung nearby so they remain in an area close by.

Due to the lack of new beetles available and the poor hatching this season we are trying to get an extension for our project so that we can get more beetles next spring.

Darren Grigg has completed the video he started at the Greg Dalton Workshop with footage of the newly arrived beetles being delivered to their new homes. This will soon be posted on the Mitta Valley Landcare website.

Karen Maroney organized for us to present a Webinar on dung beetles to a group called “The Rural Woman” and this too will soon be posted on the website.

Mitta Valley Landcare received a grant through the Federally funded National Landcare Program – “Smart Farms Small Grants” Round 4 in 2022. This has enabled us to continue trying to establish two spring active dung beetles in the Mitta 2 Murray Landcare Network region. If successful, we would achieve our aim of having year round dung burial.

The two new species that CSIRO have imported from Europe are only available in limited numbers and so a system of “Farmer Nurseries” is being trialed. There is 22 participants in the program, each has been given a small number of beetles with a breeding tent and instructions on their care. It is hoped that the beetles will reproduce in sufficient numbers to enable a paddock release with a greater chance of survival and establishment.

It is now a year since our first beetles arrived and we are excitedly waiting for the spring hatching to start. Participants will trap, count and transfer beetles to a second tent so that we will know how successful the breeding program has been.

Our beetles come from a breeder in South Australia, Greg Dalton of Creative Care. Greg visited us on 30^th June and checked the sites of new breeders who will receive their first beetles this spring.

On July 1^st he gave a workshop at Eskdale Hall followed by lunch and an inspection of existing tents at Judy and Alec Cardwell’s place. The 27 people who attended were given some invaluable information on both the importance of dung beetles in agriculture and the best methods of breeding them.

This year we will have 22 breeders and we can only hope all their efforts will be well rewarded.