The Litter Beetle Project

Introduction

The most common of the litter beetles is the lesser mealworm Alphitobius diaperinus
Vector and competent reservoir of several poultry pathogens and parasites
Causes damage to poultry housing and is suspected to be a health risk to humans in close contact with larvae and adults
Adults can become a nuisance when they move en masse towards artificial lights generated by residences near fields where beetle-infested manure has been spread

After mating, a female beetle will on average lay 200 to 400 eggs
Adults lay their eggs in cracks and crevices in the poultry house, in manure or litter, in grain hulls, and under feed and water lines
Adults can live three to twelve months, with females continuing to produce eggs most of their life at one to five day intervals
Larvae hatch in four to seven days and complete development to the adult stage in 40 to 100 days, depending on temperature and food quality
Environmental conditions required for optimum development are 70° to 95°F
Beetles prefer the litter to contain 12% moisture but can thrive when moisture levels are higher
Both the larval and adult stages are primarily nocturnal, with greatest activity occurring at dusk
Adults are long lived, normally persisting for more than a year, and under experimental conditions have survived for more than two years
A typical adult can live up to a year (365 days)
An adult female has the potential to lay 200 eggs every 5 days
365 / 5 = 73 * 200 = 14,600 / 12 mo. = ~1,200 eggs / month

When searching for suitable pupation sites, larvae will chew holes in styrofoam, fiberglass, and polystyrene insulation panels in the walls of poultry houses
Energy costs in beetle-damaged broiler houses are reported to be 67% higher than in houses without beetle damage

Important vectors of a number of poultry pathogens and parasites:

Monitoring is a key function that allows the operator to make sound pest management decisions
Preference of mealworm larvae and adults to get under objects has been used to develop a trap to monitor them in poultry litter
No treatment guidelines in terms of numbers of beetles caught
Detect them early and look at changes in trap counts over time
Trap catches also let you evaluate control measures that have been applied
Trap is a 9-inch length of 1-1/2 inch PVC pipe
Contains a piece of 8-inch x 11-inch corrugated cardboard rolled up so that the 8-inch length is inside the pipe
Litter beetle adults and larvae will crawl between the cardboard layers to hide
Holes should be drilled at each end of the pipe so that stakes can be used to hold the trap in place in the litter

Figure 1-2
	Figure 1. Example of PVC Trap.
	Figure 2. Population maps of the lesser mealworm in a broiler facility having each successive week grouped with its respective flock grow-out. (A) Adult lesser mealworm population. (B) Larval lesser mealworm population. Strother and Steelman, 2001, Environ. Entomol. 30: 556 - 561

This project is currently still in the research phase. Information will be posted as its gathered and processed.

The following pictures show the collection process of litter beetles from samples of litter taken from poultry houses.