# Question about Giant or Marauding Insect Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 1, 2017, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892 "2017-06-01T22:25:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/1 "2017-06-01T22:25:28Z")
There are a surprising amount of killer insect movies, whether giant mutants or normal sized but killers. There are movies about giant grasshoppers, as in _The Beginning of the End_, a giant preying mantis in _The Deadly Mantis_, giant ants in _Them_, giant spiders such as the eponymous _Giant Spider Invasion_, even giant worms in _Squirm_. Bees got their turn in _The Swarm_ but they weren’t giants. Well, they were giants in bee-bitten hallucinations, but that shouldn’t count. Cockroaches get shorter shrift. There a sequence about killer cockroaches in _Damnation Alley_, and the last story in the anthology _Creepshow_ has a memorable roach attack. The only full movie I can think of about sentient roaches is _Joe’s Apartment_, and they were the good guys. So my question is, why no killer mosquito movies? It could be horrifying! Giant mosquitoes out for blood, draining their victims dry. Why didn’t Irwin Allen or somebody do that? Cripes, it turns out mosquitoes are the most deadly insects in the real world because they carry diseases that have killed and sickened millions. And they don’t get a movie??? Outrageous! Why no killer mosquito movies? ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/2 "2017-06-01T22:37:14Z")
There is nothing new under the sun. ☹[Mansquito](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430334/) I’ll give you, the mosquito 's aren’t giants but you can’t have everything. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/3 "2017-06-01T22:38:03Z")
1995 Mosquito > **[Mosquito (1994) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113858/)** > > Mosquito: Directed by Gary Jones. With Gunnar Hansen, Ron Asheton, Steve Dixon, Rachel Loiselle. A violent massacre caused by human-sized mosquitoes forces the lone survivors to band together in a fight for survival as the mosquitoes continue their... 2013 Mosquito-Man > **[Mosquito-Man (2013) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1678052/)** > > Mosquito-Man: Directed by Michael Manasseri. With Michael Manasseri, Kimberley Kates, Jordan Trovillion, Lloyd Kaufman. Down on his luck and unlikely hero, Jim Crawley is having the worst day of his miserable life. He decides to end it all and even... 2005 Mansquito > **[Mansquito (TV Movie 2005) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430334/)** > > Mansquito: Directed by Tibor Takács. With Corin Nemec, Musetta Vander, Matt Jordon, Patrick Dreikauss. A scientist and her subject turn into mutant insects. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/4 "2017-06-01T22:38:18Z")
[There is one](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113858/)… ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/5 "2017-06-01T22:41:55Z")
Why stop with mosquitoes? Why not movies about giant fleas, bedbugs, ticks and horseflies? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/6 "2017-06-01T22:53:55Z")
_Tale of Tales_, [Tale of Tales (2015) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3278330/) has a giant flea in it. Ticks [Ticks (1993) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108339) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/7 "2017-06-01T22:58:00Z")
[\*The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati \*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtEpqlrwX5c) ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/8 "2017-06-01T22:58:04Z")
Mosquitoes had to wait until 1995 to get a movie?? What kind of agent do they have? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/9 "2017-06-01T22:59:58Z")
You mean like [these](https://storytellerscampfire.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/mosquito-sign.jpg)? ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/10 "2017-06-01T23:09:09Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Mosquitoes had to wait until 1995 to get a movie?? What kind of agent do they have? How many MORE types blood-suckers do we need in LA? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/11 "2017-06-01T23:20:04Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > You mean like [these](https://storytellerscampfire.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/mosquito-sign.jpg)? Is that in Minnesota? I remember seeing in passing on TV a very cheesy movie with giant mosquitoes (about the length of a car, if I remember correctly) that could punch their blood-sucking noses through a car roof, I think. I don’t know if it was one of the ones already mentioned, I have no idea what the name was. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/12 "2017-06-01T23:21:10Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Why stop with mosquitoes? Why not movies about giant fleas, bedbugs, ticks and horseflies? Well, [the original _The In-Laws_ sort of had giant tsetse flies: > [@](#): > > Vince Ricardo: I was in the jungle - the bush we called it - for approximately nine months. > > Sheldon: Nine months? My God, that really must have been something. > > Vince: Sheldon, it was unbelievable. I saw things…They have tsetse flies down there the size of eagles. Really. In the evening, I would stand in front of my hut and watch in horror as these giant flies would pick children off the ground and carry them away. > > Oh, it was an incredible sight. Peasants screaming…chasing these flies down the road, waving brooms - you can imagine the pathetic quality of these - waving these crudely fashioned brooms at these enormous flies… as they carried their children off to almost certain death. > > Sheldon: Oh, my, that is just the most horrible thing. You’re sure these are flies you’re talking about? > > Vince: Flies. Natives had a name for them. “José Grecos de Metros” - “Flamenco dancers of death.” > > The enormous flies flapping slowly away into the sunset. Small brown babies clutched in their beaks. > > Sheldon: Beaks? Flies with beaks? > > Vince: A sight I’ll never forget. I was stunned. Appalled. > > Sheldon: What did you do? > > Vince: What did I do? > > Sheldon: As a consultant, what did you do about the flies? > > Vince: Sadly, there is very little you can do because of the tremendous red tape in the bush. > > Sheldon: There’s red tape in the bush? > > Vince: Enormous red tape, Sheldon. These flies, for example. They’re protected against pilferage under the provisions of the Guacamole Act of 1937. ]([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhfFwLewgmc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhfFwLewgmc)) ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/13 "2017-06-01T23:57:01Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Mosquitoes had to wait until 1995 to get a movie?? What kind of agent do they have? It’s because they SUCK! Also, here’s a great one: [Ticks!](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108339/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/14 "2017-06-02T00:18:41Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Cockroaches get shorter shrift. There a sequence about killer cockroaches in _Damnation Alley_, and the last story in the anthology _Creepshow_ has a memorable roach attack. The only full movie I can think of about sentient roaches is _Joe’s Apartment_, and they were the good guys. So, if we sent a bunch of cockroaches and algae to Mars, hoping to terraform the Red Planet when the algae survives off the nutrients it gleans from the roaches’ corpses, but instead raised a veritable army of muscular, hard-to-kill, eight-foot-tall roach people who hate humans as much as we hate roaches, then you’d be surprised? Well, [have I got a treat for you!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMenh640jVw) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/15 "2017-06-02T00:20:01Z")
Does _Men In Black_ count for cockroaches? ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/16 "2017-06-02T00:42:37Z")
[Slugs](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093995/) has gastropods covered (not giant, but pretty big ones). The 1995 \*Mosquito \*gets points for having Gunnar Hansen “[COLOR=black]Leatherface” from [/COLOR]the original _Texas Chainsaw Massacre_ getting nostalgic when he picks up a chainsaw to fight the giant mosquitos with. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/17 "2017-06-02T00:50:18Z")
Attack of the Clones? Those [Geonosians](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108339/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) sure looked like some form of insect. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/18 "2017-06-02T00:54:23Z")
> [@Battle\_Pope](#): > > **[Slugs](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093995/) has gastropods covered (not giant, but pretty big ones).** > > The 1995 \*Mosquito \*gets points for having Gunnar Hansen “[COLOR=black]Leatherface” from [/COLOR]the original _Texas Chainsaw Massacre_ getting nostalgic when he picks up a chainsaw to fight the giant mosquitos with. I tried to watch that. Ponderous plot, very slow moving. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/19 "2017-06-02T01:07:18Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Is that in Minnesota? Alaska, where a mosquito once landed at Lake Hood and the ground crew pumped 50 gallons of avgas into it before they discovered it wasn’t a Cessna. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892/20 "2017-06-02T01:09:13Z")
Giant African mosquitoes figure into the plot of _Jumanji_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-giant-or-marauding-insect-movies/787892.md?page=2)