Mothball Repellent

Mother Earth News reader Marcella White of Edmonton, Kentucky

I worked as a rural mail carrier in Florida for many years. I often dreaded what I might find each time I opened the mailbox ? wasps, spiders, scorpions and frogs were the most common occupants. One of my customers kept a small glass jar of mothballs in her mailbox, with holes in the lid so the fumes could escape. There were never any insects or other creatures in her mailbox.

Now I live in Kentucky and have a small well house where various spiders and a copperhead snake had taken up residence. I remembered the mothballs! So, early each spring, I put new mothballs in the glass jar, and there are no pump-house occupants at all.