We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.

The quip turns a small irritation into a mock-apocalyptic scenario: insects “taking over the world.” By pretending humans deserve gratitude for having fed and hosted insects at picnics, Vaughan highlights how little control people actually have over nature’s persistence. The humor comes from the inversion of status—humans imagining themselves as benefactors to creatures they usually swat away—and from the exaggerated, political language of conquest applied to ants and flies. Beneath the joke is a gentle reminder of human vulnerability and the way everyday experiences can be reframed as evidence that we coexist with, and often serve, other species.