[Mike Marty]

Hello Mrs. Schiffer & Hartsough. I had to comment on the "incredible insects" that I encountered when I was in the south in the late '70s early '80's. Being from Illinois where most insects are usually controllable I had no idea of the "extreme" bugs of the south. I was in New Orleans several times during that period aboard the Admiral. North of the Canal St. landing there was a warehouse that offloaded ships from Venezuela. If you walked on that dock after dark, oh my goodness, the roaches were HUGE! Like you mentioned, they were probably 3 inches long. You certainly hoped that you didn't encounter any of those monsters in your cabin that night. And, an even more personal encounter with fire ants happened to me in Bean's Fleet on the Intercoastal Waterway at Galveston Bay. We were tied up with 2 empties waiting to load gasoline at GATX. We had some down time waiting for loading orders and I decided to walk out to the pay phone to call my girlfriend ( there were no cell phones then and ,yes, you did have to drop coins in a slot to make a call ). I walked to the end of our 2 barge tow, wearing nothing nothing but gym shorts and flip flops, climbed down the ladder off the empty barge and promptly stepped directly into a fire ant mound. Holy Mackerel!!! My leg was immediately covered up to the knee with biting ( or stinging, I don't know which ) ants. I had to jump into the water to get rid of them. And then I eventually had to be flown to Galveston Hospital to deal with the effects ( swelling )of the assault. People in Illinois have no idea what fire ants can do but I suspect, with global warming, it won't be too many more years before they migrate here!