Getting rid of POST servlet header, or is it an error?

Question

I am doing a post operation to a servlet. I send it some data, and then get some data back. I am doing this by the below code. When I print out the "servletText" then I get some unusual characters at the front...something like: -i00z000
Can someone please tell me how to get rid of this.
Any/All help is appreciated!
String servletText = null;
java.net.URL url = null;
java.net.URLConnection connection = null;
java.io.DataOutputStream out = null;
String userInfo = null;
java.io.DataInputStream input = null;
java.io.BufferedReader reader = null;
try
  /* Make connection. */
  url = new java.net.URL("http://ip/dir_tomcat/servlet/packg.class");
  connection = countryBook.openConnection();
  connection.setDoInput(true);
  connection.setDoOutput(true);
  connection.setUseCaches(false);
  connection.setDefaultUseCaches(false);
  /* Output info. */
  out = new java.io.DataOutputStream(connection.getOutputStream());
  userInfo = ("Here is query information for the servlet");
  out.writeBytes(userInfo);
  out.flush();
  out.close();
  /* Input info. */
  input = new java.io.DataInputStream(connection.getInputStream());
  reader = new java.io.BufferedReader(new java.io.InputStreamReader(input));
  /* Read in one line. */
  servletText = reader.readLine();
catch(java.net.MalformedURLException e)
  e.printStackTrace();
catch(java.io.IOException e)
  e.printStackTrace();
System.out.println(servletText);
public void doPost(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse res)throws ServletException, IOException {
  /* Declarations. */
  String outputString = null;
  java.io.DataInputStream input = null;
  java.io.BufferedReader reader = null;
  DatabaseConnectionManager databaseConnection = null;
  java.io.ObjectOutputStream out = null;
  /* Create reader and read in info from applet. */
  input = new java.io.DataInputStream(req.getInputStream());
  reader = new java.io.BufferedReader(new java.io.InputStreamReader(input));
  String inputStr = reader.readLine();
  /* Create database object. */
  databaseConnection = new DatabaseConnection("user", "pass");
  outputString = databaseConnection.getInfo();
  /* Create out stream & send info. */
  out = new java.io.ObjectOutputStream(res.getOutputStream());
  out.writeBytes(outputString);
  out.close();
}

Answer 1

ps) It also throws in random unusual characters throughout the text. Example:
Here is text. More text. Here come unusual z0000characters. Did you see them?