History Main / HordeOfAlienLocusts

* ''VideoGame/{{Onslaught}}'' have the Enhanced Insect Cyborgs, originally created by humans to terraform alien worlds. Unfortunately a ship filled with [=EICs=] unexpectedly went missing, where it turns out the insects have massacred the crew, started reproducing, and are now devouring everything in sight.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Monsterpocalypse}}'': The Savage Swarm aren't aliens, but they are BigCreepyCrawlies with insatiable appeties.%%The Planet Eaters, as their name implies.

* The Org of Plasm featured in Creator/JimShooter's short-lived DefiantComics title ''[[WarriorsOfPlasm Warriors of PLASM]]'' (italics and caps in the original) was a world-sized organism that had to feed to remain healthy. Its natives, the Plasmoids, used organic spacefleets to conquer other worlds and mulch their ecosystems into "gore for the Org."
* An issue of ''ComicBook/MsMarvel'' features her fighting a dimension-hopping sorcerer. He intends to maroon her on an alternate Earth where a HordeOfAlienLocusts descends upon the planet (in about five minutes...) and picks it clean in ''minutes''.
* The ComicBook/UltimateMarvel version of Galactus combines this trope with PlanetEater. And this later becomes ''even worse'' when ComicBook/{{Galactus}} himself comes to the Ultimate Universe, and ''merges with his alternate selves''. So now you have a {{Planet Eat|er}}ing HordeOfAlienLocusts empowered by [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens cosmic magic]] that allows them to eat anything and everything, and eat it ''faster''.
* ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'' turns the ''protagonists'' into this.
* In ''[[Creator/MichaelMoorcock Michael Moorcock's Multiverse]]'', the antagonist served by the the forces of Law is the Original Insect - a creature which consumes entire planes of reality in order to process them into Singularity.
* The ComicStrip/DanDare story 'The Red Moon Mystery' featured "space bees" that would strip planets of organic life.
* The ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhost'' comic miniseries has Zorak as the leader of a planet-ravaging horde of man-sized alien mantises.
* What the ComicBook/{{Annihilation}} Wave is made of.
* We're eventually given a counterpart to [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens the Celestials]] in a form of these known simply as the Horde. Just as Celestials evaluate and cull planets whose lifeforms' evolution have grown too stagnant the Horde devours worlds where the variety represented by [[SingleSpecimenSpecies the Deviants]] is too rampant.

* The Evronians of ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' are a mix of this and TheEmpire. They're a nomadic empire who travells from planet to planet, taking all the resources they can and draining the inhabitants of emotions until they become [[EmptyShell enslaved husks]], then moving on to the next one. They have a fair bit more understanding of tactics than your typical horde, however, as they have been known to pull of WeComeInPeaceShootToKill on civilizations that may have a chance to resist. [[spoiler:They are also not the only Evronian Empire out there, as an empire typically splits in two when population becomes a problem. There is an unknown number still out there]].

%%* ''VideoGame/InfestedPlanet'' on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} is a game where alien bugs are so numerous they flow like water.

* From "VideoGame/Honkai:StarRail" there is [[TheSwarm The Swarm]], a horde of self-propagating alien insects who once threatened to overwhelm the entire universe. They are servants of the Path of Propagation, ruled by the Aeon of Propagation, Tayzzyronth.

The trope is based, of course, on real-life locusts, which can totally destroy vast areas as they madly consume whatever they can before starving back to a sustainable population size. However, locusts are not actually an example, as the trope involves forces, species, or technology acting in an exaggerated parallel of real-life locust behavior.

Compare ToServeMan and the slightly less extreme (as in, they ''are'' intelligent and only want inorganic resources) PlanetLooters, and do not directly confuse them with InsectoidAliens and HiveMind, who may or may not be this trope. The Horde of Alien Locusts is a common way to set up a GuiltFreeExterminationWar or CreatureHunterOrganization, since it's a fight between a group that wants to eat everything and the groups that don't want to be eaten. Not necessarily related to GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere. Related to TheSwarm and PlanetaryParasite.

!!!'''By Author:'''
%%* Creator/AnneMcCaffrey
%%** Thread from ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern''.
%%** The Hivers from the [[Literature/TowerAndTheHive Talents]] series.
%%** The Khleevi from her Literature/AcornaSeries.
* Creator/JohnRingo seems to like this trope a lot, using it for:
** The Dreen from ''Literature/IntoTheLookingGlass''; unsurprising, since they are essentially the Zerg of ''Franchise/StarCraft'' fame. Planets that they have completely denatured are even shown in setting.
** The Posleen from ''Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata'' don't convert all biomass into more Posleen, but they do eat other sentient beings (including other Posleen) as they move from world to world, in an endless cycle of invasion, industrialization, overpopulation, nuclear holocaust.
** The Probes from ''Von Neumann's War'', cowritten with Creator/TravisSTaylor, and based on the self-replicating machines known as Universal Assemblers... theorized by Hungarian American mathematician and physicist John von Neumann.
!!!'''By Work:'''

** The Rachni, although only due to mischievous meddling. They are composed by massive swarms with a queen, but they are not inherently a horde of locusts. The Protheans tried to uplift them and turn them into bioweapons to be deployed in war, until they lost control and the experiment backfired with the most aggressive queens turning against them and becoming the trope. Ultimately the Krogans were uplifted too to deal with them.

** The Dreen from ''Literature/IntoTheLookingGlass'', unsurprising since they are essentially the Zerg of Starcraft fame. Planets that they have completely denatured are even shown in setting.

* The Vord of ''Literature/CodexAlera'' are a CaptainErsatz of the [[VideoGame/StarCraft Zerg]] in a lot of ways, including this trope. Their HiveMind is, unlike some other examples, based on a queens who personally direct their brood, with the Vord becoming more or less animals (some even surprisingly docile) when not being directly controlled or if their queen is killed. The heroes are able to take advantage of the fact that the queen has a limited focus and is unable to direct the other vord at once. The queens attitudes towards anything but other Vord (and sometimes other Vord) can easily be summed up as "assimilate and eat". It should also be noted that while [[KeystoneArmy killing a Queen effectively decapitates their Vord swarm]], this is [[RankScalesWithAsskicking easier said than done]], as [[LightningBruiser each Queen is terrifyingly fast and tough and able to tear through fully-armored humans like tissue paper]], and this is before they learn how to [[ElementalPowers furycraft]].

* The Mycons of ''VideoGame/StarControl'' certainly qualify for this trope. Though they are a bit slower than other examples of this trope, they see it as their long-term goal to [[ScaryDogmaticAliens convert all "Non" to "Juffo-Wup".]] They turn out to be [[spoiler: a terraforming biotech whose programming has drifted from its original purpose over thousands of years. Nice job breaking it, Precursors.]] Also the robotic Slylandro Probes, which are a more urgent problem, [[spoiler:and are also the result of faulty programming]].

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'': The Zerg have a fairly similar approach, including the [[CannibalismSuperpower assimilation of new species into the Zerg swarm based on their useful traits]] -- although they were [[BrainwashedAndCrazy forced into this]] through Xel'Naga modifications, after previously being a race of docile, harmless worms. Though they infest and consume the resources of planets, their goal under the [[TheChessmaster Overmind]] was actually [[spoiler: the achievement of physical purity by genetically assimilating the Protoss. The sequel gives more background information on the Overmind, which infested Sarah Kerrigan to eventually relinquish control of the Zerg swarm to her. This would thereby prevent an EldritchAbomination from using them as an army for universal genocide]].

* ''Series/TheWinchesters'': The Akrida are bug-like [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] said to consume entire worlds. In fact, the word ''akrida'' is Ancient Greek for "locust", and they're most likely a reference to the "locusts" (described far more monstrously than real locusts) in the Book of Revelation. [[spoiler:[[OmnicidalManiac Chuck]] from the parent show ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' created them to destroy everything in TheMultiverse in the event that anyone ever managed to defeat him]].

* ''Series/TheWinchesters'': The Akrida are bug-like [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] said to consume entire worlds. In fact, the word ''akrida'' is Ancient Greek for "locust", and they're most likely a reference to the "locusts" (described far more monstrously than real locusts) in the Book of Revelation. [[spoiler:[[OmnicidalManiac Chuck]] from the parent show ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' created them to destroy everything in the event that anyone ever managed to defeat him]].

* ''Series/TheWinchesters'': The Akrida are bug-like [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] said to consume entire worlds. In fact, the word ''akrida'' is Ancient Greek for "locust", and they're most likely a reference to the "locusts" (described far more monstrously than real locusts) in the Book of Revelation. [[spoiler:[[OmnicidalManiac Chuck]] created them to destroy everything in the event that anyone ever managed to defeat him]].

* The Kreegan of ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'' are in-between this and PlanetLooters: their leadership is intelligent, but the common ranks aren't, and the reason indicated by someone that was around for the beginning of the [[{{Precursors}} Ancient]]-Kreegan War for why the Kregans continually travel, land and then conquer is that they rapidly outstrip the resources of their newly conquered planet due to their breeding cycle and need to move on to one or more other planets.

* ''Series/TheWinchesters'': The Akrida are bug-like [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] said to consume entire worlds. In fact, the word ''akrida'' is Ancient Greek for "locust", and they're most likely a reference to the "locusts" (described far more monstrously than real locusts) in the Book of Revelations. [[spoiler:[[OmnicidalManiac Chuck]] created them to destroy everything in the event that anyone ever managed to defeat him]].

* The demon locust horde from the Literature/LeftBehind book ''Apollyon'', whose resemblance matches those described in the book of Revelation, and whose main purpose is to go after those without the seal of God on their foreheads and infect them with a maddening delirium that lasts for five months.

* The creatures in ''Film/BattleLosAngeles'' are apparently after Earth's water; they set up massive machines to drain the ocean and seem to be powering their devices, and even their own bodies, with it.