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Avermectin* residues in sheep and cattle dung and their effects on dung-beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) colonization and dung burial

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

K. G. Wardhaugh  and
R. J. Mahon
K. G. Wardhaugh*
Affiliation:
CSIRO Division of Entomology, Canberra, Australia
R. J. Mahon
Affiliation:
CSIRO Division of Entomology, Canberra, Australia
*
CSIRO Division of Entomology, G.P.O. Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
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Abstract

Data from dung-baited pitfall traps show that dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) do not discriminate against dung from sheep or cattle treated with avermectin. On the contrary, for a period post-treatment, dung from animals treated with avermectin attracted more beetles than dung from untreated animals. This effect was more marked with cattle dung than with sheep dung. The period of enhanced attractiveness of sheep dung was restricted to dung produced during the first day after treatment, whereas with cattle dung, the effect was still evident in faeces produced 25 days after treatment. Cattle dung produced from 3–25 days post-treatment caused 100% mortality in newly hatched larvae of the bushfly, Musca vetustissima Walker (Diptera:Muscidae). In dung of day 35, mortality was 93.6%. Dung collected from sheep from 1–6 days after treatment also caused 100% mortality of fly larvae, but by day 28, no toxic effects were detectable. Field observations on the colonization of cattle pats confirmed the enhanced attractiveness of dung from treated animals and suggested that departure rates from treated dung were lower than those from untreated dung. Treated pats supported higher beetle populations than untreated pats and burial was more rapid. The potentially serious implications of the enhanced attractiveness of avermectincontaminated dung are discussed in relation to the survival of dung beetle communities.

Type
Research Paper
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 81 , Issue 3 , September 1991 , pp. 333 - 339
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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Footnotes

*

In this paper the drugs Ivomec® and Avomec® (Merck Sharp and Dohme, MSD Agvet, P.O. Box 79, Granville, New South Wales, 2142, Australia) are referred to by the generic term avermectin.

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