Forget about all the ballyhoo on celestial events like eclipses, meteorite showers, or the passage of comets. Get tickets to a natural event in the US Midwest and Southeast this May-July – an event that only occurs every on one in 221 years.

Periodical Cicadas (Magicicada), appearon stable, multi-year cycles. After hatching, the grubs drop from the bark where mum has laid them and burrow into the soil, where they remain for many years feeding off tree roots. At the allotted time they burrow back to the surface and transform to emerge as adults. These go through an intensive breeding and laying cycle of 2-3 months before dying.

The two species of interest here are from the 17- and 13-year cycles. 2024 is year 221, when those cycles overlap and more than a trillion noisy insects take to the air.

I have been there for one of the 17-year cycles and can vouch for it being memorable – though I do recommend ear plugs, they make the cheering and jeering at a Collingwood grand final seem like a quiet place.

And there is a bonus!!! All those insects die together, and the air will soon become putrid from the rotting bodies.

Interested? A recently released book goes into the history of periodical cicada broods and the significance of 2024.