History Main / BigCreepyCrawlies

[[caption-width-right:320:Superman is [[SuperDickery bugging everyone again...]]]]

This often overlaps with AtrociousArthropods, as Big Creepy Crawlies are often depicted as hideous and dangerous beings. See also ScaryScorpions, CreepyCentipedes, CreepyCockroach, BeeAfraid, WickedWasps, MothMenace, and BugWar. If they are from space, they're InsectoidAliens. If they have a lust for galactic domination, they are a HordeOfAlienLocusts. A subset of AttackOfThe50FootWhatever and DireBeast. These are especially common in prehistoric settings. Videogames (and {{Kaiju}}) seem to love combining this trope and MacabreMothMotif. Some of them are also ProportionatelyPonderousParasites. Often led by a [[InsectQueen queen]].

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': "[[Recap/CodenameKidsNextDoorS1E7AOperationLICE Operation: L.I.C.E.]] had the Sector V operatives dealing with a swarm of giant mutated hair-eating lice that infested their treehouse, thanks to the Delightful Children from Down the Lane after Numbuh 5 infiltrated their mansion to steal tortilla chips for their nacho cheese dinner, to which they swapped out her real hat with one infested with the lice. After the operatives defeat the swarm with nacho cheese, they give the DelightfulChildren ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine [[BookEnds by stealing Lenny's football helmet and swapping it out with one with lice]].
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'': "[[Recap/CourageTheCowardlyDogS2E15 Courage in the Big Stinkin' City]]" features Bushwik, a big, humanoid, talking cockroach. (And while he is scary, he is ''not'' the scariest thing in this episode, which is saying a lot, as it is one of the creepiest episodes in an already-creepy series.)

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': "[[Operation: L.I.C.E.]] had the Sector V operatives dealing with a swarm of giant mutated hair-eating lice that infested their treehouse, thanks to the Delightful Children from Down the Lane after Numbuh 5 infiltrated their mansion to steal tortilla chips for their nacho cheese dinner, to which they swapped out her real hat with one infested with the lice. After the operatives defeat the swarm with nacho cheese, they give the DelightfulChildren ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine [[BookEnds by stealing Lenny's football helmet and swapping it out with one with lice]].

* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'': Creator/JRRTolkien has a cartload of these, including Ungoliant (''Literature/TheSilmarillion''), Shelob (''Literature/LordOfTheRings'') and the Mirkwood spiders (''Literature/TheHobbit'')

* ''WebAnimation/HumansBGone'' is all about sapient bugs so huge that humans are to them what normal bugs are to us.

** ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'': Boons are flies large enough to fly while carrying around good-sized rocks.

* ''Fanfic/TheWeaverOption'' has bug controlling parahuman Taylor Hebert finding all sorts of large and nasty insects to use against her enemies as she travels the Imperium of Man.

** In ''Anime/GreatMazinger'', one whole host of the Mykene Empire army is made up of bio-mechanical, massive insects. Their commander, General Scarabeth, resembles a gigantic rhinoceros beetle.

--->--"To a creature like that, we must seem like, well, bugs." -- '''Dars Gostok, Firefist captain'''

** The [[https://scryfall.com/card/frf/122/ambush-krotiq Ambush Krotiq]] is an insect so large that it dwarfs beasts that haul full-sized forts around and can prey on dragons.

* Franchise/YuGiOh: Many Insect type monsters count as this, their size range from realistically small, to as large as a man, to the size of {{Kaiju}}'s.

* Howdy from ''ARG/WelcomeHome'' is a giant anthropomorphic caterpillar who towers over the other characters in artwork. Subverted since he's the good-natured local shopkeeper.

* ''VideoGame/AliceInWonderland'': The Mushroom Forest is populated with [[MosquitoMiscreants gigantic mosquitoes]].

For the supertrope of abnormally-sized animals in general, see AnimalsNotToScale.

This often overlaps with AtrociousArthropods, as Big Creepy Crawlies are often depicted as hideous and dangerous beings. See also ScaryScorpions, CreepyCentipedes, CreepyCockroach, BeeAfraid, WickedWasps, MothMenace, and BugWar. If they are from space, they're InsectoidAliens. If they have a lust for galactic domination, they are a HordeOfAlienLocusts. A subset of AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever and DireBeast. These are especially common in prehistoric settings. Videogames (and {{Kaiju}}) seem to love combining this trope and MacabreMothMotif. Some of them are also ProportionatelyPonderousParasites. Often led by a [[InsectQueen queen]].

* ''VideoGame/FoxNForests'': Enemies in the game include insects that look roughly the size of [[PlayerCharacter Rick]]'s head. Oh, and there's also, as one boss, a [=GIGANTIC=] green and brown wasp creature.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Creator/OrsonScottCard uses this with the bug-like species systematically killing the crew of a human starship because, aside from the queens, their own species doesn't have free will, and they just assumed we'd be the same way. Subverted in that the bugs have bones, and that they're actually quite a nice and sympathetic, even naive (if occasionally creepy) species.

* The initially tiny ants in the ''Literature/StillMoreTalesToGiveYouGoosebumps'' story ''Awesome Ants'' gradually develop into this after a boy ignores the instruction manual for his new ant farm and starts overfeeding them. By the ending they've reached the size of mountains, and locked up all humans in town-sized ant farms.

* In ''Literature/JurassicPark'', giant dragonflies described as having a six-foot wingspan — presumably cloned ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Meganeura]]'' — appear briefly in the aviary ([[BigLippedAlligatorMoment without explanation given for their presence]], considering they are from before the evolution of mosquitoes and thus couldn't be cloned by using the blood in the ones preserved in amber like what had been done with other prehistoric animals).

* In Creator/PiersAnthony's novel ''Literature/OnAPaleHorse'', Zane, the incarnation of Death, faces a gigantic demonic preying[[labelnote:sic]]It looks like a praying mantis, but is a minion of Hell that never prays; it does prey, though.[[/labelnote]] mantis.

* ''Scorpion: Second Generation'', the sequel to Michael R. Linaker's ''Literature/{{Scorpion}}'', has the killer scorpions from the first book return, except this time they've been [[NuclearMutant mutated into giants]] by radiation.
* ''Literature/TimeMachineSeries'': In ''Search for Dinosaurs'', you meet some impressively large dragonflies in the Triassic period.

* Zigzagged in the short story "giANTS" by Edward Bryant. An IntrepidReporter uncovers evidence that the American and Brazilian governments are working together to [[GovernmentCoverup cover something up]], and various clues -- not least of which being increased interest in the movie ''Film/{{Them}}'' among the involved parties -- make her suspect that an army of giant mutant ants has arisen in South America, and that, like the fire ants and killer bees before them, they're on their way north. She manages to track down a scientist who seems to be connected to the whole thing, but he tells her that there are no giant mutant ants -- ''yet''. [[spoiler:He then explains to her what's actually going on. It turns out that something -- possibly a radiation leak from a nearby power station -- has messed up the life cycle of a swarm of army ants, permanently locking them into their nomadic phase. They're no bigger than other ants of their species, but they're more active, more aggressive and hungrier, and have the power to devastate the ecosystem in their path. Oh, and thanks to incautious use of insecticide over the years, they're resistant to every one available. Fortunately, the project he's part of has come up with an unconventional solution: a mutagen which will, indeed, cause the ants to grow enormous... [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome which will inevitably kill them]] as [[SquareCubeLaw their bodies can no longer carry their own weight]]. It works.]]

* The ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' series isn't a stranger to this trope. In fact, the giant roach monster (Buggs in the first game, Gregor in both ''Covenant'' and ''From The New World'') hold the honor of being the only enemy to appear in every game of the trilogy. Other Big Creepy Crawlies include Zosim (a wasp pupa infected by a parasitic snake), a flesh-eating [[CreepyCentipedes centipede]], large snails that feed on human blood, Megafilaria and Gigafilaria (magic-powered leech-like creatures) and Gatorback/Scorplinus (heavily-armoured scorpions).

* ''Series/BabylonFive''

* The she-mantis in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and the giant bugs in ''Series/{{Angel}}'''s "[[Recap/AngelS03E05Fredless Fredless]]".