Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
That cockroach is named
After you…

Valentine’s Day is just a few days away, and as such every couple, and of course speculative business, is trying to come up with something special for this year to impress his loved one. A box of candy and a teddy beer? Too corny. Stay up all night and watch Lord of the Rings? Please… Name a star after her? A tad melodramatic I believe. Wait, I know, how ‘about naming a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach after your love one?

And would you know it, you’re in the nick of time, since The Bronx Zoo is holding a fund raiser in which you can send your darling (or maybe ex-girlfriend) a colorful e-card letting her know that you’ve named one of 60,000 Giant Hissing Cockroaches living in her honor. Not only will she be thrilled that find out she’s been associated with one of nature’s most resistant fiends to calamities, but also know that it’s all been for a good cause too, since all proceedings go to Wildlife Conservation Society. The e-card costs 10$ and you can order it online from the zoo’s website. Heck, it beats being in Fred Durst’s shoes.

“They’re extraordinary, which means if you’re cool about bugs, they’re really cool,’ says Steve Fairchild, a spokesman for the Wildlife Conservation Society. “We’ve got about 50 or 60 thousand in a hollowed out tree.”

Madagascar hissing cockroaches are the world’s largest roach species reaching nearly four-inches long. The hissing noise they make is a natural defense mechanism.

“Nothing says forever like a cockroach,” said Jim Breheny, Senior Vice President for Living Institutions and Director of the Bronx Zoo. “They are resourceful, resilient, and have been around for hundreds of millions of years.