The majority of dung beetle species appear in April and are active until the end of June. After that, most adults will die or hibernate before the next generation emerges at the beginning of September. In addition, there are large numbers of water beetles (Hydrophillidae) around from Spring to early-summer. These are the guys that make the holes in the top of the pats and their activity greatly speeds up its decomposition. Most dung beetles come to the dung pat from the side, so you don't see their activity from the top.

During the summer months, there are only a few species active, although they are usually present in large numbers (e.g. Aphodius rufipes, Aphodius rufus, Aphodius fimetarius). Dung flies and water beetles are also much more scarce in the summer.

I am trialling the impact of wormers on water beetles at the moment - no literature currently exists, so it would be interesting perhaps next year to check for their susceptibility to Cydectin. Although Cydectin is marketed as 'dung beetle friendly', it has been shown to significantly impact dung beetle and dung fly survival in treated dung.

Personally, I would suggest regular faecal egg counts to monitor worm burdens - we do this with our cattle and horses, and since have found almost zero worm burdens and therefore have not had to worm for 2 years. Most people who worm preventatively are doing so unnecessarily. I use the FECPAK system from Innovis rather than sending samples to the vet. Once you have bought it, all you need to replace is the salt solution and then you can carry out the counts in your own time. You can also do herd or mob counts, which are useful for commercially-sized herds. Also included is a booklet explaining the results and whether you need to treat or not. I would thoroughly recommend it as a management tool in reducing the amount of unnecessary worming. Often it is the odd individual animal who carries a burden - we have one young pony who is the only one to show an elevated burden and therefore we target worming at her.

I do also use some of the alternative products which I am trialling, including Diatomaceous Earth (DE) from Natural Feeds and Fertilisers. They have combined it into a self-administered lick which is useful from a management point-of-view, but I am unsure whether animals receive the same dose as when it is added to the feed ration for a 5-day period each month. Despite it looking like crushed chalk and needing to be given in large volumes, I have never found a problem with palatibility in cattle (mixed dry with feed) or horses (mixed with feed and dampened with water). I also use Verm-X for my own horses, but as yet, there is no true scientific evidence on its efficacy. The results with DE are so far mixed. My trials are also the first looking at the impact of these products on dung beetles and the decomposition of dung, so hopefully I will have more information on this soon.

I also trialled a homeopathic treatment put in the drinking water from Blue Merle last year and worm counts fell after each treatment. For all other treatments, initial worm burdens were so low, that it was not possible to look at treatment efficacy (except for a garlic pour-on, where worm burdens rocketed).

As a rule, I would avoid the use of avermectin-based wormers and use them and other chemical treatments only when necessary. I think they are a useful tool in worm control, but only when used correctly in treating a problem group of animals/individual where worm burdens have risen above a sustainable level. Also, have you come across Zolvix? It is a new sheep wormer from Novartis that I am currently trialling.

Please let me know if I can be of more help. I hope (when I am less busy with trials) to keep my website updated on my research, so please do check back. I hope to carry on trials following this work in Zambia as well as the UK.