Without dung beetles and other helpers, a pile of cow dung can sit in a field for a very long time. It can smother the grass under it. Some beetles eat animal dung and bury it in the ground. Some dig tunnels under a pile and lay eggs in it.

Leafcutter ants haul leaf pieces to their nest. They do not eat the leaves. First they chew the pieces into tiny bits and add them to the fungus garden. They use the leaves to grow a fungus, and they eat it.

Under old leaves in damp places, millipedes eat bits of rotting leaves. They are slow, and they do not bite people. They do not harm things in a home either. Centipedes are different, and they are fast hunters of small bugs.

Earthworms live in soil and eat dead leaves and bits of soil. Their droppings are called casts. They are full of soil, bits of plants and tiny microbes, and they feed the soil. Black soldier fly larvae eat rotting food scraps. What they leave behind is good for soil.

In a compost pile, tiny living things and small bugs eat old leaves and food scraps. They turn them into dark brown compost. When the pile is working, it gets warm. The tiny living things eating inside it make the heat.

A termite is a tiny insect that eats wood. Old, dead wood is what it breaks down in the wild. Termites live in big groups called colonies, and the workers are the ones that find and eat the wood. They help forests by breaking down fallen trees and stumps. Their nutrients go back into the soil.

Words to know

• casts: worm droppings
• larvae: young flies
• fungus: mold-like growth
• nutrients: plant food
• smother: cover and block