Poultry Litter Beetle: Silent Killers

Litter beetles

Litter beetles are those dark beetles you find in poultry houses, most especially in deep litter houses. They normally hide under everything – drinkers, feeders, stones, laying boxes that are on the floor, along the walls etc. In my early days of raising chickens, I totally ignore these beetles because I thought they were harmless. But are they harmless? They are VERY harmful!

Litter beetles

 

Litter beetles eat chicken feed, their larvae bore into insulations, woods etc, they climb into poultry feathers and bite them, sometimes killing weakened chickens and worst of all, they can carry a lot of poultry diseases!

 

The scientific name for these little destroyers is Alphitobius diaperinus. Locally, they can also be called darkling beetles, lesser mealworm, black beetles etc. They cause more problems in houses where the litter is allowed to build up without any effective control program in place.


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Feeding Poultry Litter to Ruminants (goats, sheep and cows)

Manure in Chicken Feed Sacks

Poultry litter is a mixture of poultry manure, spilled feed, feathers, and bedding materials (such as wood shavings, sawdust, peanut hulls, shredded sugar cane, straw etc). Some will be shocked to discover that poultry litter can be fed to ruminants like cows, goats and sheep. Some will wonder how beneficial it is and its health implication to both ruminants and man. In a short while, we’ll be considering all these.

Why Would Some People Feed Poultry Manure to their Animals?

I’ll be writing about 3 reasons why farmers feed poultry litter to their animals.

1. Disposing Poultry Litter is a Big Challenge: Disposing of poultry litter can lead to environmental pollution. If you are a backyard poultry farmer, you may not understand what I mean. Chickens can generate tons and tons of manure over a period of time. A single layer hen weighing
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