.....>I seem to recall from the halcyon days of my undergraduate studies >in Pasadena, California that the palms lining some streets were (so >the story goes) infested with "tree rats." Allegedly, these would >set up housekeeping in the tangle of dead fronds near the top of >each palm.... Well, when I was a girl in South Pasadena, California, the palms were infested with English sparrows. Surely the two life forms can't coexist in the same palm tree....these tall specimens had huge caps of dead fronds and thatch, covered over with the adult version of English ivy - very different from the juvenile type below in the groundcover and flowerbeds. The adult ivy had much larger leaves, and long, dangling bouquets of sickly yellow-green blooms and pollen (said to be poisonous.) And, in Galveston and elsewhere along the Texas coastline, palm trees are said to be infested with "palmetto bugs" the largest and most vigorous of the roach tribe in Texas....several inches long....very spry.... It doesn't seem as though palm trees have had much good publicity. We have to admit, though, that the residents of palms - rats, English sparrows and palmetto bugs - are real go-getters. They can certainly survive almost anything. Cynthia W. Mueller