The Building Beetle Highways Project is now underway following its debut event at Dowerin Field Day.

We have four farms - two cattle and two sheep properties - strategically located across the Wheatbelt who we will be supported to participate in the National Dung Beetle Ecosystem Engineers project. These farms will be required to trap beetles monthly for two years, sending all samples to UWA for identification and preservation.

The national project is quite demanding as it is a university-led research project.  Our Building Beetle Highways project will be much less demanding for people wanting to participate.

We are currently calling for landholders who are interested to see if they have dung beetles on their properties and, if so, what types.  We then want to map and gap the species, comparing and contrasting what we should have with what we do have. On-farm nurseries will be established to breed populations of suitable species for release into areas where there are gaps.

There are currently seven species known to be established in the Wheatbelt.

We will supply equipment and training to participating farms.  They will then be asked to set traps four times a year in spring, summer, autumn and winter, sending the beetles caught back to us to be identified.

If you are interested in participating, please email Felicity at fgilbert@wheatbeltnrm.org.au.  We’d love to have you onboard (I just can’t vouch for the quality of the jokes!)