Q. Are dung beetles ever employed as a natural way to handle animal feces?

A. The thousands of species of voracious beetles in the family Scarabaeoidea evolved to move, bury and consume the excrement of many animals in nature.

Dung beetles are widely recognized as important contributors to farm cleanups, as well. Some species have been transplanted into alien environments to help meet agricultural needs.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, there was a large-scale introduction of dung beetles into Australia to handle the excrement of another introduced species, beef cattle. Government entomologists imported dozens of species of beetles to address several problems, among them fouled pastures, slowing decomposition and disease-carrying flies in ordure.

Depending on soil types and other environmental factors, some species became established over the long term. Dung beetles have also been found to improve soil conditions, to suppress E. coli in blueberry fields, and to feed on harmful fly larvae in pastures.