The Bronx Zoo is allowing Valentine's Day revelers to name roaches for their sweeties. Photo courtesy of the Bronx Zoo

NEW YORK, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The Bronx Zoo is offering entomology-minded romantics the perfect Valentine's Day gift: Naming a cockroach in honor of their love.

The Bronx Zoo said $10 allows a potential suitor to name a Madagascar hissing cockroach for the object of their affection and they will receive a digital certificate showing that one of the zoo's tens of thousands of roaches share their name.


The zoo said the next level of roach-naming gift, for $25, includes a printed roach name certificate along with a confection from the Nunu Chocolate company of Brooklyn.

"Your donation will also help us protect these misunderstood love bugs, along with a lot of other animals, both big and small," the zoo said. "As they say, roaches make the heart beat faster."

The zoo has run similar promotions in the past, and the San Francisco Zoo took a page out of the Bronx Zoo's playbook last year and allowed scorned Valentines to adopt cockroaches and scorpions in honor of "your favorite ex."