While ladybird beetles have been employed as eco-friendly pest killers both at home and abroad, how to keep them in field crops without flying away has been a major challenge.

The team led by Teruyuki Niimi, associate professor at Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, identified a master gene for wing development, and used the RNA interference technique to disrupt the gene’s function, according to the journal.

Niimi said the new technique is unlikely to affect the ecosystem as it differs from genetic modification and that the ladybirds’ offspring will be born with wings just like normal ones