As part of a summer scholarship project at the University of Queensland in Australia, Michael Godfrey came up with the idea of utilizing remote control technology to drop beneficial bugs on crops as a natural form of pest control.

The "bug drone" buzzes over pest-infested crops and drops Californicus mites – which eat harmful bugs – on cornfields like little paratroopers.

"The idea [is] to use natural predators or diseases to control agricultural pests. [We can] mitigate chemical use, which is not only harmful for the environment but also costly," he stated in an email to FastCo-Exist.

This method has been found to be much faster and more economical than walking through corn rows and spreading them by hand, as is the traditional method.

Credit: FastCoExist

The five-and-a-half pound, six-rotor drone with a converted seed spreader on the bottom to hold the mites can cover 12 acres in just 15 minutes. A small motor on the bottom turns a wheel that releases the bugs while the drone soars over the cornstalks.