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Two 18-year-old girls, Jrasnatt and Marisa, learned about a major challenge faced by the cricket (蟋蟀) farmers. Bigger crickets often attack the smaller ones. When attacked, a cricket will cut off its own legs to escape. But after abandoning a leg, this animal will often die or becomes less valuable to buyers.

Jrasnatt and Marisa were determined to solve the problem. After some research, they learned that colored light can influence the behaviors of some animals, including insects. To find out, the teen researchers transferred groups of 30 newly hatched crickets into each of 24 boxes. The crickets in six boxes were exposed only to red light. Another six boxes were lit with green. Six more boxes were lit with blue. These three groups of insects spent daytime hours throughout their lives — about two months — in a world bathed in just one color of light. The last six boxes of crickets lived in natural light.

“We see they’re growing every day and take notes on what’s happening,” says Marisa. “We’re like the parents of the crickets.” Throughout, the teens kept track of the crickets. The share of crickets with missing legs was about 9 in every 10 among those living in red, blue or natural light. But fewer than 7 in every 10 crickets who grew up in a world of green lost legs. Also, the survival rate for crickets in the green box was four or five times higher than that in the other boxes.

Crickets’ eyes are adapted to only see in green and blue light. So, in red light, the world would always look dark. Without being able to see, they are more likely to hit each other. That results in crickets losing legs. Besides, crickets are more attracted to blue light than green light, which pulls them closer together and leads to more fights. In the green light box, the crickets were most likely to mind their own business and avoid struggle.

Creating a green-light world for crickets is a solution that could be brought to the farms. Jrasnatt and Marisa are already in talks with the farmers. Those farmers plan to try out green lighting to see if it will boost their profits.