Giant and killer insects have long been part of Science Fiction. Giant and deadly insects go back to the Science Fiction’s king of monsters, H. G. Wells, with The Food of the Gods (Pearson’s, December 1903-June 1904) and “Empire of the Ants” (The Strand, December 1905).
The Pulps like Argosy welcomed the “off trail” idea in stories by Murray Leinster, Homer Eon Flint and Ralph Milne Farley. Leinster did a series of three novellas that form the novel Forgotten Planet, with “The Mad Planet” and “The Red Dust” (and later “Nightmare Planet”) in which a planet is seeded with insects and later humans who must survive the gigantic bugs. Homer Eon Flint had a long-running series of short novels about Dr. Kinney including the last “The Emancipatrix” that featured insects. Farley created a long-running series with “The Radio Man”, “The Radio Man Returns”, “The Radio Beasts”, “The Radio Planet” etc. that had a man transferred by Radio to a planet where insects war with each other. Both of these would be reprinted later in all-Science Fiction Pulps.
“The Wicked Flea” by J. U. Giesy (Weird Tales, October 1925) is the first in a series of Professor Zaft stories. Weird Tales published plenty of Science Fiction in its early days, beating Gernsback to the punch in many cases.
“The Eggs From Tanganeyika” by Curt Siodmak (Amazing Stories, July 1926) holds the record for being the shortest story to get a cover.
“The Red Dust” by Murray Leinster was reprinted in Amazing Stories, January 1927.
“The Beetle Experiment” by Russell Hays (Amazing Stories, June 1929)
“The Human Termites” by David H. Keller (Science Wonder, September October November 1929) took us inside a termite mound.
“The Beetle Horde” by Victor Rousseau (Astounding Stories of Super-Science, January–February 1930) was how Harry Bates decided to begin the run of Astounding, with a mad scientist who wants to destroy the world with giant bugs. A weak start for the magazine that would become the apex of SF magazine fiction.
“The Bees From Borneo” by Will H. Gray (Amazing Stories, February 1931)
“Across the Void” by Leslie F. Stone (Amazing Stories, April May June 1931)
“The Raid on the Termites” by Paul Ernst (Astounding Stories of Super-Science, June 1932). I’ve written about this story here.
“Hands Across the Void” by Henry Kuttner (as Will Garth) (Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1938)
“Coup D’Etat” by Oscar J. Friend (Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1939)
“The Radio Man” reprinted in Fantastic Novels (January 1941)
“Pogo Planet’ by Donald A. Wollheim (as Martin Pearson) (Future, October 1941)
“The Sleeper is a Rebel” by Bruyce Walton (Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1948)
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“In Caverns Below” by Stanton A. Coblentz (Fantastic Story Quarterly, Fall 1950)
“The Savage Swarm” by Harlan Ellison (Amazing Stories, March 1957)
Hollywood caught bug fever in the 1950s with giant insect films like Them! (1954). The Science Fiction magazines had abandoned them for the most part by then though the occasional clunker like Harlan Ellison’s “The Savage Swarm” still showed up. Later in the 1960s Keith Roberts would write a good one called The Furies. Talk about murder hornets!
