Bees and other pollinators like butterflies are essential to farmers who grow flowering crops like fruit orchards and almonds, but with bee populations suffering over the last decade, due to a variety of factors, one innovative researcher in Japan may have found the perfect solution—and the idea came to him while in the park blowing soap bubbles with his son.

Eijiro Miyako, an associate professor at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has successfully used soapy bubbles to pollinate a pear orchard by delivering pollen grains to targeted flowers in the most delicate way, utilizing a drone.

The whimsical technique would be much cheaper and more effective than other types of manual pollination, when used in concert with robotic or drone delivery methods.