There are a lot of things you're mail carrier has to deal with on their daily routes that may create a stressful, or even dangerous, working conditions, including protective dogs, traffic and icy walk ways just to name a few.
One way that we can try to keep our mail carriers stay safe during their sometimes unpredictable work conditions is to take an ordinary household item and place it in your mail box. Easy, right?
Before we tell you which item, you may be wondering what are we helping avoid for our helpful mail carriers by doing this? Supposedly, coming across stinging insects.

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Right now in the State of Maine, we are seeing wasps, hornets and yellow jackets starting their nests. This is according to the UMaine Cooperative Extension webpage about these aggressive, stinging insects we see here. And one of the places that may seem quit appealing for these insects could be your mailbox.

According to Reader's Digest, a dryer sheet placed in your mail box will deter certain aggressive pests to avoid making your mailbox home. It is claimed that a scented dryer sheet or two will help keep away stinging insects like hornets, wasps and yellow jackets and prevent them from wanting to stay in your mailbox and build a nest.
There is some debate on whether this is urban legend or fact but, the argument behind this method is that the smell given off from the dryer sheet is a strong smell and an unusual smell that these insects won't be familiar. Both of these points could be reasons why these insects will avoid the mailbox. Additionally, stinging flying insects like wasps aren't big fans of strong smells like eucalyptus, citronella and cloves. So swapping out your aired out dryer sheets with fresh out-of-the box ones will supposedly help keep the insects away and hopefully make for a stress-free visit to your mailbox for your mail carrier.

Even if it's just urban legend, it may be worth your effort and make your mail carrier know you are looking out for their safety.

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