Now admittedly, this has never, ever occurred to me. It's just not something I ever encountered in my years on this rock.

But when I saw it on Reddit (YSK aka The You Should Know page), and then again on the Today show site, it made absolute sense. Have you ever seen a seemingly random dryer sheet in your mailbox? If you have, you should leave it alone.  They were placed there deliberately and for a great reason!  According to the Reddit post, your mail carrier may put a dryer sheet in your mailbox to fight against pesky, stinging bugs! Especially if you're out in the county, your poor  mail carrier may be fighting off wasps, yellow jackets, hornets, etc, just living in/hiding in your mail box.  The boxes make a nice place to hide when it gets cold at night for them. Anyway, the post was done by a mail carrier, and here's what he said:

I can’t tell you how many times, especially during this part of the year, where I’ve opened up a box to see a little nest with 3-5 Yellowjackets just chillin. If I’m really unlucky, they will have made their nest at the very back of the box so I wind up sticking my hand in not knowing they are there. We all know how temperamental these little d*****bags are and merely existing in their presence is enough to piss them off. Last year alone I was stung 10 times on 10 separate occasions. Getting to my point. We’ve found that they hate scented dryer sheets. If we encounter a box that is a problem for nests, we’ll often put one in there and it does the trick.

How clever! It's a simple solution, isn't it? It deters the little buggers but doesn't hurt them, and the mailman doesn't get stung!  Maybe check your mailbox at home, too. If you have troubles with wasps or yellowjackets in your neighborhood, maybe you could slip a dryer sheet in just in case.  After all, it's not hurting anything, and it would prevent the little jerks from even wanting to be there.

Have you ever seen a dryer sheet in your mailbox?  What did you do? Did you ever find out why it was there?

I for one might slip one in there just to be pro active.  We did have a few wasps around our porch area this past year.  It couldn't hurt. And if it stops my mail carrier from getting stung, why not?

Sheetingly yours,

Behka

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