Of space shuttles and ants

Yesterday, a rocket was launched into space, which we watched with Wolfie, who was absolutely fascinated. I will blog about his newfound love of rockets and space exploration later, but right now let me merely mention that everytime I hear of a space shuttle, or anything to do with astronauts, I remember that episode from The Simpsons (back when they were good of course) when Homer went into space, in Deep Space Homer. More specifically, this scene with Kent Brockman, where he mistakenly thinks hiant ants from outer space have taken over the ship and are about to invade earth. I always laugh when I see it, in more than 25 years it never gets old:

What's with the ants?

The title of this post is a question I have been asking myself today, as they are, well, everywhere. You know, those ants that have wings like flies, and they just go out at some point in the summer, when it is hot and dry, and they fly around, and crawl on the ground, and get stuck on your clothes and you step on them and it makes a dry sound when you squash them. And of course you cannot avoid them completely, because there are so many. It used to know why the winged ants are all around like this. I don't remember now. So please enlight me. It just struck me today, all those ants.