My dad was a firm believer in DDT and Malathian, and none of us ever had big problems. I guess if I have made it to my “golden years” without insecticide problems it really didn’t have much effect on me. I want to throw another question out there to y’all!

I used to live down that way when my kids were growing up. We had a large lake on our property that eventually was almost covered up with water hyacynths. They grew by leaps and bounds. It was a never-ending job to keep them pulled out to even make a path for the boat or swimming. Finally, my dad said he thought he could help with the elimination of them. I told him to “be my guest”! He showed up that weekend with a few large sacks of FERTILIZER, loaded it in the boat and away he went, casting big handfuls of fertilizer over the entire lake. In a few days the hyacynths were large and green, but then they started dying like flies. We had to clear the lake of the “scum” left behind, but for the most part they were dead! I called Daddy. He said he wasn’t sure it would work when he did it, but someone had told him that a good fertilizer would make them grow so fast the little “bulbs” on the leaf stems would out-grow themselves, pop, and croak over. Apparently, the info-giver was right, or…………..was it just their time to go home to “Hyacynth Heaven”? Any comments from you wise Florida crackers?