People have been left alarmed after opening their mailboxes to find a stray dryer sheet - and the reason why they're mysteriously appearing has been revealed.
If you’ve stumbled across a lone dryer sheet tucked inside your mailbox lately, don’t be alarmed.
It’s not garbage and no, your house isn’t being targeted for a break-in. Turns out, it’s actually your mail carrier doing you - and themselves - a massive favor.
The strongly scented household staple is actually being used as a secret weapon in the war against yellowjackets and wasps.
“We’re almost to the month of May, which means nice weather, hanging out outside, school closing for the summer, and the return of those dastardly devils: Yellowjackets and Wasps,” one postal worker wrote on a Reddit thread that’s gone viral. “We’ve found that they hate scented dryer sheets.”
As temperatures start climbing but the nights remain chilly, wasps and yellowjackets go house-hunting, and your dark, cozy mailbox is prime real estate.
“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,” the same mail carrier shared. “Last year alone I was stung 10 times on 10 separate occasions.”
The Reddit user shared another warning in the post, which read: “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**chebags are and merely existing in their presence is enough to p**s them off," they added.
So mail carriers have started leaving scented dryer sheets inside the boxes as a makeshift bug repellent. “If we encounter a box that is a problem for nests, we’ll often put one in there, and it does the trick,” they confirmed.
And they’re not alone, as restaurant workers have chimed in to share their experience, too. “I’ve worked in restaurants all throughout California, and those b*****ds love brazenly getting into the guests’ plates, especially if they smell salmon. We learned long ago to put a few dryer sheets under the tablecloths on the patio."
The trick works across brands, so it’s not about name recognition - it’s about scent. But this is no fix for a full-blown infestation.
“This should only be used as a preventative measure,” the user explained. “It would be best to get rid of the large nest and then put a dryer sheet in to keep them from coming back.”
And for anyone wondering if it’s okay to yank that foreign object out of your mailbox, please don’t. “So please, if you one day randomly see a dryer sheet at the back of your mailbox, just know that your carrier more than likely put it there to deter these Satanic creatures from building their home in it.”
Also worth noting: if you’re in the US, that mailbox isn’t technically your property.