History Main / SpiderSwarm

* ''The Ashtown Burials'' has the deadly Whip Spiders living in the Polygon, which hunt in packs and attack with stinging tentacles. At one point Nolan tumbles onto their level and is swarmed instantly. GoodThingYouCanHeal comes into play, though it still [[ImmortalityHurts ''hurts'']].

-->'''Crook''': YOU! QUIT! LEAVE! RIGHT NOW! This weapon has a hundred thousand volts and I'll tag this girl with every last one of them unless you...\\
'''Spider-Man''': The spiders.\\
'''Crook''': Uh, what?\\
'''Spider-Man''': I'm summoning the spiders.\\
'''Crook''': What are you...?\\
'''Spider-Man''': I'm Spider-Man. And you're me making mad. I'm summoning the spiders. They will come to my call. Hundreds of them. Thousands. And [[PestController all of them at my command]].\\
{{Beat}}\\
'''Spider-Man''': Because I'm Spider-Man!\\
'''Crook''': I GIVE, DUDE! I GIVE!

* ''Film/{{Arachnophobia}}'': The Venezuelan spider species presented in the film consists mostly of drones that lack sex organs, and they have a hive with a queen similarily to bees or ants. It is implied that if left to breed freely, the spiders would eventually give birth to a new queen capable of birthing fertile offspring, eventually leading to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the whole world being overrun]] by the extremely aggressive and venomous strain of spiders.

* ''Film/EightLeggedFreaks'': The town the move takes place in ends up getting overrun by a large swarm of {{Giant Spider}}s.

* ''Film/MonsterHunter2020'': What's left of Alpha Team after their encounter with Diablos is attacked by a swarm of spider-like Nerscylla. Only Captain Artemis gets out alive.

* In ''Literature/TheHobbit'', one area of Mirkwood forest was full of giant intelligent talking spiders who all lived together in the trees and cooperatively hunted prey. Justified by the fact that they are not normal arachnids, but rather demonic spiders. Probably the [[UrExample Ur-Example]].

[[folder:Toys]]
* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'': The Visorak horde. While there are giant Visorak specimens called Kahgarak, all of them are soldiers who answered to the Brotherhood of Makuta and whoever they assign to be their king. Their objective is to overrun entire islands, trap, kill or mutate the locals, and claim the universe for the Brotherhood.

* In ''Webcomic/WildeLife,'' this is actually a ''good'' thing--wolf spiders are the minions of [[BigGood the White-Faced Bear]], and tend to show up when our protagonists are threatened (particularly [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Cliff]], whom the WFB is invested in for unknown reasons). [[SpidersAreScary This does not mean that the person they're helping won't be freaked out when they swarm all over him]].
* Parodied in ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'' comic 331. When Vance introduces himself to Sydney he claims to be 100s of spiders communicating telepathically as a colony intellect, held together by a fake human suit. Queue Sydney moving away. Incidentally, Dave has said he hadn't actually decided on Vance's power yet, so this may end up being true.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Episode 5 of ''Podcast/TheLostCat'', ironically entitled "They're Only Spiders," features an absolutely ''massive'' swarm of spiders that pours out of toilets and sinks and sends the townsfolk fleeing. They take shelter around the Hole of the Leviathan - due to its strange vibrations -- and end up surrounded by a wall of spiders so thick it ''blots out the sky''. [[spoiler: By the next day, they're all dead and everyone eats them]].

* ''RolePlay/WeAreAllPokemonTrainers'':
** Jane and Fool end up fighting a swarm of Ariados while searching for [[Webcomic/{{Homestuck}} Troll Orbs.]]
** A swarm of Ariados nearly killed Every in his backstory, leading to a lifelong fear of the species.

** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E16CampfireTales Campfire Tales]]", a camping trip is interrupted by the arrival of a huge swarm fly-ders, [[MixAndMatchCritters spiders with insect wings]], that came there seeking food. This kind of swarming behavior seems natural for the fly-ders, which are able to force the characters to flee through through sheer numbers and multidirectional attacks. Applejack implies the fly-ders would have tried to eat them if they had managed to overwhelm them.

** M. balfouri is a particularly noteworthy example, not in scale of number of individuals but in term of size of individuals. They are medium sized tarantulas but only form colonies of three to twelve individuals. Also bizarre in that they seem to evolving ''away'' from eusociality as they actively assist each other in breeding and surviving the experience of breeding for the males of colony. [[note]] Colonies are all brothers and sisters and never reproduce with other members of the colony.[[/note]]

Notice that the trope, while it ''can'' be a case of ArtisticLicenseBiology or CriticalResearchFailure, can also be, to an extent, justified if the species of spiders involved is fictional. Also, as noted in the RealLife section of this page, this trope actually is, to some extent, TruthInTelevision: there ''are'' species of spiders that are social, just not to the extent presented in fiction.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has several:

* Killing a giant spider in the 1996 original ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' would cause it to release dozens of baby spiders (about the size of a real tarantula) that could attack, but only did negligible damage to the player. They could be stepped on just by walking over them, but it was better to just run away, since they would despawn along with momma spider's carcass once you left the room.

* ''Film/{{Arachnophobia}}'': Played UpToEleven. The Venezuelan spider species presented in the film consists mostly of drones that lack sex organs, and they have a hive with a queen similarily to bees or ants. It is implied that if left to breed freely, the spiders would eventually give birth to a new queen capable of birthing fertile offspring, eventually leading to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the whole world being overrun]] by the extremely aggressive and venomous strain of spiders.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': The giant spiders known as Acromantulas appear to be social, although instead of a queen, they are led by an elderly male spider named Aragog. It's explicitly stated that Aragog had a bride, so apparently, Acromantulas females don't feed on their male.

[[quoteright:278:[[Literature/TheHobbit https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tn-the_spiders_of_mirkwood_2115.jpg]]]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': The first live-action movie, ''Asterix & Obelik Takes on Caesar'', has a swarm of spiders in a pit used by the Romans as obstacle for their games. Asterix gets swarmed from head to toes, while Obelix get rid of them by [[SuperBreath blowing very hard]].

* ''Film/MonsterHunter'': What's left of Alpha Team after their encounter with Diablos is attacked by a swarm of spider-like Nerscylla. Only Captain Artemis gets out alive.

* ComicBook/{{Thorgal}} once runs into a woman whose true form is a GiantSpider due to a curse, who can control her tens of thousands of children.
* The Bride of Nine Spiders, one of the [[ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist Immortal Weapons]], combines this with TheWormThatWalks. Her body hosts a myriad of spiders which she can release at will to devour enemies alive.
* While not actually used, ComicBook/SpiderMan invokes this trope when dealing with a bank robber who takes a woman hostage.

* One of the Council of Spiders members who Tim fights at a League of Assassins base in ''ComicBook/RedRobin'' is a PestController who is always covered in spiders and who can have his spiders lay eggs in people and then kill them while eating their way out.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': The villain Miss Arrow is composed of thousands of hive-minded spiders.

* ''Film/LostInSpace'': The Spiders appear to be collective, or at least attack in large number.

* In ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', as Indy and Satipo are exploring the South American temple, Satipo's back becomes covered with tarantulas, which Indy brushes off. Tarantulas are usually solitary.

* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': The first live-action movie, ''Asterix & Obelik Takes on Caesar'', has a swarm of spiders in a pit used by the Romans as obstacle for their games. Asterix gets swarmed from head to toes, while Obelix get rid of them by [[SuperBreath blowing very hard]].

* In ''Film/HangmansCurse'', it's revealed that the attacks are the result of planted pheromones causing an African Spotted wolf spider to bite the victims. Then, they breed with a brown recluse spider and infest the school. The climax of the film has the spiders blanketing part of the school.
* ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'': One of the final hazards unleashed by the game is a horde of oversized spiders that attack the players.
* ''Film/MonsterHunter'': What's left of Alpha Team after their encounter with Diablos is attacked by a swarm of spider-like Nerscylla. Only Captain Artemis gets out alive.

* ''Literature/TheUnderlandChronicles'' by Suzanne Collins has a species of spiders called "[[CallARabbitASmeerp Spinners]]" living as an entire race.

* ''Literature/DrNo'' sent James Bond through a "torture tunnel" to see how far he would make it. One of the obstacles was about two dozen tarantulas restrained by a mesh screen that Bond was required to break through. He knew that their bite was not fatal, but certainly painful.

* In ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', Mogora, occasional wife of Iskaral Pust, is a shapeshifter who can become a swarm of hundreds of spiders. [[ForTheLulz She torments her husband to no end with her abilities]].

* ''Ride/DisneyThemeParks'': A swarm of spiders is included as a part of Hopper's army in ''It's Tough to be a Bug'', where they drop down from the ceiling towards the audience, only for them to pull back up per Hopper's demands.

* Nerubians in ''[[VideoGame/WarCraft Warcraft III]]'' are spider-men with a social structure, with Queens and Spider Lords as the most powerful units. Though [[MixAndMatchCritter they're more of a mishmash of various arthropods including spiders, beetles and mantids]].
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'':
** While they aren't explicitly stated as collective creatures, and no Queen has been featured yet, you usually meet Frosbite Spiders in large numbers. They usually are met by group of five, but you can easily meet several groups in the same dungeon, as well as one giant one as an occasional boss.
** Then ''Dragonborn'' gives us the Albino Spiders and their variants, which are all significantly smaller but much more numerous than the Frostbites.

* In ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight'', Artyom encounters nests of Spiderbugs, GiantSpider-scorpion hybrids who are WeakenedByTheLight. A few rounds of flashlight tag and they're FlippingHelpless.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'': The Temple of Time dungeon is infested with tiny baby spiders watched over by four-legged spiders. After defeating the GiantSpider Armoghoma, it drops to the floor, surrounded by a swarm of the tiny spiders.
* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'': One of the levels involves the Kongs having to outrun a gigantic swarm of invincible spiders after disturbing their nest.

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'': The spider mini-boss will send groups of smaller spiders [[WeaponizedOffspring (possibly its children)]] after Tiny Kong.
* ''Videogame/DarkSoulsII'': [[GiantSpider The Duke's Dear Freja]] commands an army of relatively smaller giant spiders. Interestingly enough, if you manage to chop off one of Freja's heads, the spiders will run away from it. This implies that the spiders are being driven by their fear of Freja.
* After Ophelia is injured in ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'', Eddie is told he needs to go to the lair of the Metal Queen to get bass strings thick enough for Killmaster to heal her, which is crawling with swarms of tiny spiders that [[PersonalSpaceInvader will swarm over Eddie and drain his health]], plus larger, human sized spiders, and the Metal Queen herself, who's as big as a house.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* The party from ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'' is confronted once by several {{giant spider}}s and [[http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0229.html a full swarm of normal-sized spiders]] at the same time.

* ''RolePlay/WeAreAllPokemonTrainers'':
** Jane and Fool end up fighting a swarm of Ariados while searching for [[Webcomic/{{Homestuck}} Troll Orbs.]]
** A swarm of Ariados nearly killed Every in his backstory, leading to a lifelong fear of the species.

* Episode 5 of ''Podcast/TheLostCat'', ironically entitled "They're Only Spiders," features an absolutely ''massive'' swarm of spiders that pours out of toilets and sinks and sends the townsfolk fleeing. They take shelter around the Hole of the Leviathan - due to its strange vibrations -- and end up surrounded by a wall of spiders so thick it ''blots out the sky''. [[spoiler: By the next day, they're all dead and everyone eats them]].

** M. balfouri is a particularly noteworthy example, not in scale of number of individuals but in term of size of individuals. They are medium sized tarantulas but only form colonies of three to twelve individuals. Also bizarre in that they seem to evolving ''away'' from eusociality as they actively assist each other in breeding and surviving the experience of breeding for the males of colony. [[note]] colonies are all brothers and sisters and never reproduce with other members of the colony[[/note]]

** M. balfouri is a particularly noteworthy example, not in scale of number of individuals but in term of size of individuals. They are medium sized tarantulas but only form colonies of three to twelve individuals. Also bizarre in that they seem to evolving ''away'' from eusociality as they actively assist each other in breeding and surviving the experience of breeding for the males of colony. [[note]] colonies are all brothers and sisters and never reproduce wiht other members of the colony[[/note]]

* In ''VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception'', there are tons of massive spider swarms that appear out of nowhere to crawl all over Nate and co. and can actually kill Nate (or the RedShirt Mooks who get ditched by Talbot once they have [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived their usefulness.]]

* ''VideoGame/DragonAge'':

** Literal swarms of spiders (as well as other insects and small animals) are often encountered -- they occupy a ten foot square area, and do damage by being in the same square as their prey. Often they are not easily damaged by conventional means, making them the bane of many a low-level party.