History Main / BugWar

* ''Disney/WreckItRalph'' has the game Hero's Duty, which has [[SpaceMarine Space Marines]] fighting robot bugs called Cy-Bugs. The bugs here are mindless automata -- unlike most video game characters in the setting, who know they're in a video game -- and only exist to eat and multiply. They are usually stopped by a giant glowing tower that acts as a bug zapper, on which they are programmed to kill themselves so the game can reset properly.

Often, the bugs are [[ScaryDogmaticAliens a stand-in for whatever enemy was current at the time of writing]].

* The original Bug War movie (and the other notable source for ''Aliens''): the giant ants of ''Film/{{Them}}''

** ''Film/{{Mothra}}'' had a brief conflict between Mothra and the military, but Mothra is such a benevolent creature that the humans get off pretty light. Later films that focused on Mothra (''Film/MothraVsGodzilla'', ''Film/GodzillaAndMothraTheBattleForEarth'', ''Film/GodzillaMothraKingGhidorahGiantMonstersAllOutAttack'') instead had the humans fighting ''with'' Mothra against Godzilla (or against King Ghidorah in the ''Film/RebirthOfMothra'' trilogy), in a twist on this trope.

* Even today, mosquitoes cause more human deaths via spreading diseases than any other non-human animal.

* The 80s version of the ''GIJoe'' cartoon climaxed in a movie that revealed that the true power behind COBRA was really an ancient culture called "Cobra-La" made up of snake/insect humanoids.

* One of the best known examples is the titular creatures of the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' films, although to call them "bugs" would be inaccurate given their... [[BizarreAlienBiology unique nature]]. The Aliens are freakishly inhuman, and are even mistakenly referred to as "bugs" in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', which was widely inspired by ''Literature/StarshipTroopers''. Here, the [[EyelessFace facelessness]] of the Aliens also added to their scariness. In ''Aliens'', Hudson even asks "Is this gonna be a standup fight, sir, or another bughunt?" before going on the ill-fated mission to LV-426. Also, the Marines have a logo on their landing craft that depicts an eagle with boots stomping on an insect, with the tag line "Bugstompers - We endanger species".
** The insectile design the xenomorphs from the ''Alien'' series [[FollowTheLeader strongly influenced]] the third edition Tyranids of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', the Zerg of ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' and the Brood of ''Comicbook/XMen''.

* The Bugs in ''VideoGame/BodyHarvest'', which are of the ToServeMan variant. Since due to time travel, you're fighting with them over a hundred year period, every new generation of the bugs features new enemy units.

* Z from ''WesternAnimation/{{Antz}}'' survived a war with termites. While the ant characters, especially their faces are highly anthropomorphic, bordering on PettingZooPeople, the termites are completely non-anthropomorphized. They do seem capable of intelligence however, as General Mandible and the Queen discuss earlier peace negotiations with the termite colony.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/starshiptroopers_bug.png]]

[[quoteright:330:[[Film/StarshipTroopers https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/starshiptroopers_l_1149.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:330:[[Film/{{Aliens}} Game over, man, game over!]]]]

* Space 4X games such as ''Franchise/MasterOfOrion'' will almost always characterise insectoid species as fast breeding, expansionist and aggressive, making bug wars almost inevitable during a game. These traits are often combined with penalties to science, bonuses to ground combat, and OrganicTechnology to keep things as close to the Literature/StarshipTroopers-inspired stereotype as possible.

* The ongoing ''Literature/SwarmOnTheSomme'' story series from Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom features the nigh invincible [[HordeOfAlienLocusts insect-like]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Grex]] invading Earth and waging war against humanity... ''[[OhCrap during the first few months]] of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI!''

* Avalon Hill published a "Bookshelf Game" based on ''Literature/StarshipTroopers called, reasonably enough, ''TabletopGame/StarshipTroopers''. The first few scenarios are intended to get players used to the basic game rules of combat and movement and are fought between the human Mobile Infantry and the humanoid "Skinnies" rather than the pseudo-arachnid "Bugs", but each scenario introduces a few new rules until eventually the Bugs do appear.

* Spoofed in the ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' episode ''War is the H-Word'', where the enemy is a [[StarfishAliens race of bouncing balls]]. The episode ''Three Hundred Big Boys'' takes place after a Bug War against a planet of [[GiantSpider giant spiders]], with the resulting surplus being distributed among the populace. A planet of (presumably) [[AvertedTrope peaceful giant spiders]].

%% The following {{Zero Context Example}}s have been commented out and copied to Discussion. Please don't add them back unless you also add context to show how they fit this trope.

%% The following {{Zero Context Example}}s have been commented out and copied to Discussion. Please don't add them back unless you also add context to show how they fit this trope.

* The manga ''Terra Formars'', a play on the word Terraforming, involves a notably stupid idea in which the governments of Earth, seeking to deal with dwindling resources on Earth, decide to send roaches and some fungus to Mars as a way to terraform it. Safe to say, 200 years later when they finally send humans up there to see if it works, the welcoming committee wasn't too pleased. The welcoming committee in question were made of sapient, 7 feet tall, humanoid roaches with huge, oogly eyeballs and equipped with supernatural speed, strength and a noticeable lack of anything resembling mercy, if the way they massacre the astronauts are any indication. [[spoiler:Especially interesting is the way they BaitAndSwitch protagonists. Not even the touching way they build up relationships in the first two chapters is any help considering they are all massacred. The second group is no better and the LoveInterest died almost immediately with only TWO survivors. The third and most current generation so far seem to be faring, somewhat well. Read:Half of them are already killed off.]]

* The [[http://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/ants/exotic_tx.cfm Crazy Rasberry Ants]] (no, [[IThoughtItMeant not a misspelling of "Raspberry,"]] but instead named for the first exterminator in Texas to tangle with them, [[http://crazyrasberryants.blogspot.com/ Tom Rasberry]]) are becoming a major problem in Texas. [[http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5781180.html First introduced to Houston]] in 2002 via an infestation in a cargo ship, they have since spread to fifteen Texan counties and have reached [[http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/SA_becomes_home_to_crazy_ants_little_pests_that_pose_big_problems.html San Antonio]]. If you thought fire ants were bad, ''these'' bugs have the potential to be an ecological and civil disaster; not only do they infest areas by the ''billions'' (they have ''40 queens'' for every 1000 ants), nearly all pesticides are ineffective and they avoid baits. They've been known to irritate and drive off animals as well as take over honeybee hives and attack pollinating insects (''very'' bad for the ecosystem). Even ''worse'', they are attracted to electronics and will destroy computers, vehicle equipment, air conditioning, and just about anything using electricity. They've even threatened the NASA complex in Houston. As Tom Rasberry himself put it, "[[http://crazyrasberryants.blogspot.com/2009/07/usa-we-have-problem.html These ants pose a clear and present danger to our way of life, and the time for real action was years ago.]]"

* One of the many, '''many''' conflicts that the Imperium of Man of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' infamy is embroiled in is a constant galaxy-wide Bug War with the Tyranids, a planet-eating HordeOfAlienLocusts who appear be biologically engineered, with some traits of now extinct species, suggesting they assimilate traits from devoured biomass.

* Space 4X games such as ''Franchise/MasterOfOrion'' will almost always characterise insectoid species as fast breeding, expansionist and aggressive, making bug wars almost inevitable during a game. These traits are often combined with penalties to science, bonuses to ground combat, and OrganicTechnology to keep things as close to the StarshipTroopers-inspired stereotype as possible.

* The TurboGrafx16 ''Cyber-Core'' has the twist that the protagonist fighting the insectoid invaders is a half-human, half-insect mashup.

* The war against the Hive in ''TourOfTheMerrimack''. The Hive aren't precisely insectoid in appearance, but they fit in the sense of being an endless horde of mindless chitinous horrors which exist only to eat.