I’ve seen these Fire Ant rafts numerous times around Mobile in my youth. Mobile, Alabama is where the Fire Ant entered the USA.
I remember reading about the fire ants when I was stationed at Ft Benning GA in the early “70”s. As I recall it was a ship carrying sugar or something that ran aground near Mobile back in the mid 1800’s. The ship was abandoned because of the infestation of ants, and the rest is pesk history as they say.
Is that about the gist of the story?