Dung beetles as biological control agents for gastrointestinal parasites of livestock

Herbage samples from a pasture plot free of dung beetles had 14.7 times more Ostertagia ostertagi (Stiles) larvae than samples from a plot which contained an increased dung beetle population of about 5-fold above the natural population. Herbage samples from a plot with the natural dung beetle population had 3.7 times as many larvae as samples from the plot containing the larger beetle population. The reduction in numbers of O. ostertagi larvae available to grazing animals by the burying activity of the beetles was reflected in a similar reduction in the number of adults recovered from parasite-free calves which grazed the plots.