Nothing tells a former partner exactly how you feel like naming having a venomous snake named after them.
For anyone harbouring a grudge against an ex, there are a wealth of ways to express your feelings this Valentine’s Day.
While doing physical harm to a former significant other is generally frowned upon, there’s nothing to stop you giving their name to a hapless insect, for example, and tossing it to a hungry animal before letting nature take its course.
Here are some of the other vengeful things you can do in your ex’s name on February 14.
Tell your ex exactly what you think of them by having a cockroach named after them, thanks to the romantics at El Paso Zoo in Texas.
You can then watch live on Facebook as keepers feed your ex’s creepy crawly namesake to a meerkat. Simples.
If there’s something fishy about your ex, this might be the one for you.
For around £15 you can pay to give a salmon your ex’s name and then watch as it’s tossed to a hungry bear by staff at Oregon’s Wildlife Images Rehabilitation & Education Centre.
At the Richmond Wildlife Centre, it’s worms and beetles being given the treatment.
“For that truly terrible ex, make a $5 donation and name a hornworm after your ex and watch that horned devil be devoured,” the centre wrote in a Facebook post.
“Your worthless ex can finally do something nice – their namesake helping us to feed the animals in our care.”
If you’ve got no real desire to see your ex devoured by some sharp-toothed predator but still want them to know exactly what you think of them, you could take the approach of getting a snake named after them.
That offer comes courtesy of Wild Life Sydney Zoo, and to add a bit spice the reptile in question is a deadly venomous brown snake.
If a cupcake seems to lack some of the spite of a cockroach or a snake, make sure you pay attention to the video.
As well as a delicious sweet snack with your ex’s name on it, this Heart Broken gift set from Mr Cupcakes also comes with a gold-plated chocolate hammer with which to exact some sweet, cathartic revenge. Smashing!
The National Weather Service on Friday issued a rare warning for part of Colorado's Front Range as hurricane-force winds and tinder dry conditions boosted the threat of wildfire across several counties, while flood warnings were issued in Oregon as rivers there swelled from heavy rain.
It marked another day of severe weather in parts of the United States, with forecasters issuing warnings for everything from more winter weather bearing down on North Dakota to red flag warnings in Nebraska and Texas and flood warnings from Washington south into California.
Most notable was the “particularly dangerous situation” fire weather warning issued in Colorado on Friday morning, a first for this western state. PSD warnings are reserved for the most severe scenarios, and in this case it was fueled by forecasters' concerns that extreme combinations of strong winds, super low humidity and critically dry fuels could lead to life-threatening fire danger.
“We don't really want people to panic because that doesn't help anything, but we want people to be prepared,” said Jennifer Stark, the meteorologist in charge of the weather service office in Boulder. She noted that it is the peak windy season for the area.
Tens of thousands of customers were without power Friday as Xcel Energy carried out another public safety power shutoff to prevent further fire risks. Some residents already had been without power, heat or hot water for more than 24 hours.
The utility warned that unplanned outages resulting from wind damage were expected to significantly exceed the number of customers affected by the preventative shutoffs.
In Nederland, a town in the Rocky Mountain foothills 40 miles (64.37 kilometers) northwest of Denver, Matt Arlen helped stock shelves in a grocery store that was without power — and closed to customers — since 6 a.m. on Friday, one day after a burst of “panic shopping” in response to extreme weather.
Violent winds pried away loose exterior parts from buildings in town and blew a sign from a local gem and fossil shop into Arlen’s front yard.
“We’re used to kind of high winds,” he said. “It’s more the power outage affecting people up here that don’t have fire places” for heat at home.
Still, the combination of winds and dry weather were on Arlen’s mind in a region that can be prone to wildfire. The 2021 Marshall Fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in the nearby suburbs of Boulder.
“The only thing is, we haven’t had a lot of snow,” said the pricing coordinator at B&F Mountain Market.
In Boulder County, emergency management officials were urging people to be prepared in case a fire were to be sparked. Forecasters predicted gusts between 80 and 100 mph (128 and 160 kph).
“I'm not trying to scare everybody, but this is serious. We want to make sure people take it serious,” county spokesperson Vinnie Montez warned in a social media post.
Colorado transportation officials closed highways due to the conditions. The high winds also closed stretches of interstates in southeastern Wyoming to high-profile vehicles.
Meanwhile in northwestern Oregon, National Weather Service forecasters said they expected widespread river flooding to continue following heavy rains.
Clackamas County, which spans some Portland suburbs and part of Mount Hood and the Cascade Range, sent evacuation notices to 300 residences, said county spokesperson Scott Anderson. Some of the most significant flooding occurred on the Sandy, Clackamas and Molalla rivers, with authorities performing rescues throughout the night, he said.
An emergency shelter was opened at Clackamas Community College. Roads also were closed across the region, including part of a highway that leads to Mount Hood.
In northern California, forecasters were expecting a Pineapple Express, a stronger atmospheric river that originates in the tropics near Hawaii, to arrive around Christmas Even. That forecast brought hope to ski resort operators that much anticipated precipitation will extend into the Sierra Nevada, where very little snow has fallen this season.
Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico, contributed to this report.
A couch that was blown off the balcony of a high-rise condominium building sits crumpled after falling to the street as hurricane-force winds whipped through the area Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Xcel Energy workers toil to repair power lines on a street closed after hurricane-force winds whipped through the metropolitan area and interrupted service to residents Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Xcel Energy workers work to repair power lines on a street closed after hurricane-force winds whipped through the metropolitan area and interrupted service to residents, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
