The noisome economics of dung beetles
They are worth millions a year to cattle ranchers
THE ENGLISH colonists who brought cattle to Australia in 1788 soon faced a malodorous problem. The dung heaps that gradually and tastefully vanished back home were not going anywhere. Instead, they were growing ever-larger, and becoming infested with bloodsucking flies that wounded the livestock.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “The economics of dung beetles ”
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