As Valentine's Day approaches, zoos across the United States offer an outrageous way to celebrate love-- naming a cockroach after loved ones, or perhaps an ex.
The Bronx Zoo Name a Roach program offers an interesting way to express genuine love by naming a Madagascar hissing cockroach after your sweetheart for the price of $15. Customers can get a virtual certificate to memorialize the love bug.
Unlike flowers and chocolates, cockroaches last forever.
In its Twitter account, the zoo encourages the public that naming a roach after a loved one is one way your love can last forever.
"Valentine's Day is almost here, and there's only one way to tell someone your love is eternal. Name a Bronx Zoo hissing cockroach for them."
The program will benefit the Wildlife Conservation Society, a non-profit organization, according to NPR.
Moreover, the zoo offers other items like roach socks and roach beanies.
Valentine’s Day is almost here and there’s really only one way to tell someone your love is eternal. Name a Bronx Zoo hissing cockroach for them. Go the extra mile and add a roach hat, roach socks, or romantic roach encounter to complete the package: https://t.co/S66H3cbGvB pic.twitter.com/E1X38037Cj
— Bronx Zoo (@BronxZoo) January 18, 2022
The Bronx Zoo in New York started Valentine's Day campaign in 2011, per Fox News. The naming of cockroach is also applicable to exes and friends.
According to National Geographic, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, like 99 percent of all cockroach species, are not pests and do not live in human homes. Insects that live on forest floors hide among leaf litter, logs, and other debris. They become more active at night and forage for food, preferring to eat fruit or plant debris.
The cockroach's mating ritual includes hissing, which can be used as a strong alarm signal. The majority of insects that create noise use vibrating membranes or rub their body parts together. On the other hand, Madagascar hissing cockroaches exhale air through their breathing holes.
Other Zoos' Valentine's Day Offerings
The Houston Museum of Natural Science also suggests cockroaches as Valentine's Day gift idea. Customers can buy a name-a-roach pin for the price of $10 with a digital gift certificate and a roach named after your special someone.
"There are two things we're sure will last forever; True Love and Roaches," the museum's website says.
On the other hand, the San Antonio Zoo offers to Cry Me a Cockroach fundraiser offers the naming of the bugs after persons who made 2021 hell like an "ex-partner" or "boss." It also offers other living creatures to name: one can pay $5 to name a leafy green plant, $10 for roach, and $25 for naming a rodent after someone.
For those individuals who will upgrade their donations, the zoo offers a video of their new named creature being fed to an animal.
Meanwhile, the Nebraska Humane Society has a similar promotion to San Antonio Zoo's gimmick. For $15, the group will put the first name of an ex-lover at the bottom of a litter box.
Is Cockroach the New Love Symbol?
Some may find it weird to name a cockroach after someone you love. But for Lauren Davidson, an entomologist at Houston Museum of Natural Science, thinks it's sweet-- kind of.
Davidson suggests that it's "really better" if one names a loved one, rather than an ex, after a cockroach "because they're really cool bugs" as they can live for an extended period and and "they can live in just the weirdest places." Like true love.
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