I had a similar problem while living in Florida, but not as severe.  I
would find that I could install software from floppies, but when I tried to
use them some months later, the diskettes could not be read.  Because of
humidity problems, we used closet shelves made of vinyl-coated metal to
allow air to get in around the clothing to prevent mildew problems.  I
stored software boxes with floppies on these shelves.  Once I stopped doing
this, I did not seem to have as many problems but this was around the same
time I switched to buying software on CD-ROM so it may have been that.  I
never did find out exactly what caused this problem, but at the time I
blamed it on the salt in the air -- which caused problems like cars rusting
from the top down.  I never thought of the fungi problem.  I never had
problems with any other media such as video tape, but the place I worked
had mountains of nine-track tapes that would fail after being stored for a
while hanging from metal racks ... They had years of archives that were
probably useless but never tried to periodically recopy them to extend
their life.

----------
> From: Jan Wilson <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Technical info on floppies?
> Date: Wednesday, May 06, 1998 7:47 AM
>
> On 6 May 98, at 20:51, our friend [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> > I have lived for a decade and a half in Micronesia, on tropically humid
and
> > hot, and dusty islands.  During these years, I have often wondered how
best
> > to take care of floppies.
>
> We have the same problem in Belize, and I would love to hear an
> authoritative answer to your questions.  I suspect the fungi or
> whatever that kills the floppies may be related to the gunk that
> causes us to have to clean mice at least once a week, and builds up
> on my car's (plastic) steering wheel.