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{{trope}}
[[File:Spider_7B_9090Spider 7B 9090.jpg|link=Xiaolin Showdown|frame|When [[Chewing the Scenery]] goes too far.]]
 
 
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Because the only purpose they have in life, the be-all and end-all of their existence, is the conversion of all organic matter in the universe into more of them. They don't do diplomacy, because you don't bargain with lunch. This is, of course, always cause for a [[Bug War]].
 
Most Locust Hordes use, or ''are'', [[Organic Technology]]. However, [[Nanomachines]] can also become a Horde -- theHorde—the (in)famous "[[Grey Goo]]" scenario.
 
Compare [[To Serve Man]] and the slightly less extreme (as in, they ''are'' intelligent and only want inorganic resources) [[Planet Looters]], and do not confuse them with [[Insectoid Aliens]], who may or may not be this trope. [['''Horde of Alien Locusts]]''' is a common way to set up a [[Guilt-Free Extermination War]], 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 [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]]. Related to [[The Swarm]]
{{examples}}
 
== [[Anime]] & [[Manga]] ==
* In the manga version of ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'', demons' bodies are built out of "legion", much like humans with cells, but they have the power to rebuild themselves to [[Good Thing You Can Heal|regenerate wounds]]. However, when {{spoiler|Aion}} corrupts the legion, they are {{spoiler|released into Earth's atmosphere and begin to eat away at humans. Aion's plan is to "rebuild" the world by using the legion in this way to destroy all life as we know it. He also}} says that those with a "strong will" can control the legion, which for them turns the legion into something more like [[The Virus]].
* The Vajra from ''[[Macross Frontier]]''. Subverted in that {{spoiler|it turns out that they're not out to destroy the Frontier fleet, but rather on a misunderstood rescue mission since they see Ranka and (to an extent Sheryl) as one of their own owing to the fact that she can communicate via fold waves through her singing.}} {{spoiler|The whole image of a [[Horde of Alien Locusts]] was conjured by the conspirators from the Frontier and Galaxy fleets to hide their true goals, to take over the Vajra [[Subspace Ansible|fold communication]] network and use it to control the galaxy}}.
* ''[[Vandread]]'' has this for the Human Race of Earth, who kill entire planets of people that have colonized elsewhere so they can harvest them for their organs.
 
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* The ''Org of PLASM'' (italics and caps in the original) featured in [[Jim Shooter]]'s short-lived [[Defiant Comics]] 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 ''[[Ms. Marvel]]'' features her fighting a dimension-hopping sorcerer. He intends to maroon her on an alternate Earth where a [[Horde of Alien Locusts]] descends upon the planet (in about five minutes...) and picks it clean in ''minutes''.
* The [[Ultimate Marvel]] version of Galactus combines this trope with [[Planet Eater]].
* [[Marvel Zombies]] turns the ''protagonists'' into this.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The Tyranid Hive Fleets of ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' have been encroaching on the 40k galaxy for centuries. If they take a world, they kill and devour every living thing (taking useful traits from the creatures to improve their hordes of bio-engineered monsters), eat the soil, drink the oceans and suck up the atmosphere. They also use [[The Virus]] in the form of the [[Alien|Xenomorph]]-esque Genestealers to destabilize potential opposition. It is implied that they have already stripped at least one galaxy of all available biomass, and their current campaign of destruction is merely the next course, and then confirmed (5th edition rulebook, page 166) that they have consumed ''a dozen galaxies'' prior to coming to the one we know and love. Partially inspired by the Xenomorphs from Alien.
** And it's implied that the Tyranids are running from something--butsomething—but what could scare a Horde of Alien Locusts? If it is something that can scare the Tyranids, a race [[Determinator|with determination of an ant colony]], some of the bigger beasts reaching all the way up to [[The Juggernaut|Juggernaut]] status, I shudder to think of what kind of potentially [[Eldritch Abomination|unholy creatures]] they are, and if/when they will arrive.
*** Universe's biggest flyswatter?
*** It might have something to do with the [[Our Zombies Are Different|Necrons]], as it's implied that Tyranids make a point of staying far away from Necron tomb-worlds. It would make sense when you consider that Tyranids and Necrons are polar opposites: the Tyranids exist to continually grow and expand until they're the only living things left, while the Necrons exist only to exterminate every single living thing for their [[Eldritch Abomination|C'tan]] masters.
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* The RPG ''Nightbane'' had Shadow Mantis/Locust which rather unsurprisingly are exactly this, except they eat inorganic material as well and are mostly wiped out nowdays.
* 2nd Edition [[Dungeons and Dragons]] contains a good number of these such as:
** The Horde, which are an elemental (and Lawful Evil, ironically) race of insects which vary in size and shape from horde to horde, with all members of a particular horde being identical (i.e., sometimes they will appear as 20  ft. tall golden mantids other times they may appear as foot-long black beetles). They attack and consume anything that is not from their particular horde, even ''other'' hordes.
** ''[[Spelljammer]]'' introduced the Witchlight Marauders - a multi-staged sequential bioweapon made by the Orcs during the Unhuman Wars for [[Kill'Em All|completely devastating entire Elven worlds]] via consumption and ultraviolence. After they kill every living thing on the planet they then turn on themselves. <ref>For those interested, the cycles unfolds as such: The space marauders are 1000' crocodilian heads with [[Space_SailingSpace Sailing|sails]] and tentacles, zapping everything that didn't run away with [[Solar-Powered_Magnifying_GlassPowered Magnifying Glass|focused reflected light]] and explosive projectiles. They launch primary marauders (200' ravenous slugs) at enemy worlds. The primaries would proceed to devour ''everything'' in their path, up to mineral deposits, belch poisonous gas and periodically eject 2-20 secondary marauders - 20' tall vaguely humanoid monsters with metal teeth and (poisoned) claws - capable of climbing sheer walls and [[Berserk Button|obsessed with killing anything that smells like an elf]]. The secondaries, once full of hot fey meat, would then (you guessed it) birth 1-4 tertiary marauders - 4' tall humanoid berserkers with swords for hands, very fast and as hungry as their progenitors. Once the primaries got their fill of sylvan carnage they'd burrow deep into the ground and split into two new primaries to start the grisly cycle all over again.</ref>
*** The Clockwork Horrors, a [[Mechanical Lifeform]] gone [[AI Is a Crapshoot|wrong]] - metal spiders with death rays and buzz saws.
** There was some fungus from Abyss that gradually eats everything. An attempt to get rid a world of the infestation destroying it by banishing all fungus to the plane of Vacuum only made it mutate further into Egarus - which is said to devour the existence as such: anything and anyone that was left close to it for too long simply vanishes.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* The Kha'ak in the ''[[X (video game)|X]]-Universe'' games. The [[AI Is a Crapshoot|Xenon]] are the mechanical version - being rogue terraforming robots, their only purpose is to build more of themselves, and to "[[Colony Drop|terraform]]" everything in sight.
* The Zerg from ''[[Starcraft]]'' (based on the Xenomorphs and the Bugs from [[Starship Troopers]]) have a fairly similar approach, including the assimilation of new species into the Zerg swarm based on their useful traits -- althoughtraits—although they were [[Brainwashed and Crazy|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 [[The Chessmaster|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 [[Eldritch Abomination]] from using them as an army for universal genocide}}.
* Smoke's ending in ''[[Mortal Kombat]] Armageddon'' has him fusing with his fellow Cyberninjas Sektor and Cyrax and doing the Nanomachine version of this.
* The Flood from the ''[[Halo]]'' series are somewhere between Alien Locusts and [[The Virus]].
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The nanomachine version is used in an episode of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]''. They species appears to be made artificially for a war from fifty-thousand years ago, and is meant to consume every planet they're sent to, spread to some other planets, and repeat until they're all dead.
* In ''[[Transformers]]'' we have the Insecticons, a literal swarm of alien locusts (and weevils and stag beetles). Unlike most Transformers, they don't live simply on energon. Instead they eat ''everything''--including—including, in the comics, meat.
* The Matrix in ''[[Gargoyles]]'' was in danger of becoming an [[Star Trek|assimilation-happy version]] of this in nanomachine form until it fused with Dingo's [[Powered Armor]]...But there's always the potential for future hijinks!
* In the ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'' episode "Dangerous Minds", Jack Spicer accidentally [[Sealed Evil in a Can|releases]] a horde of [[Giant Spiders]]. According to the ancient legends, "The spiders are neither good nor evil. They are merely... ''consumers''. They consume vegetation, animals, buildings, even the earth itself. They eat... until there is nothing left to eat."
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