If you find a dryer sheet in your mailbox this summer, don't be alarmed. There is a reason for it.

As the weather warms up, wasps will start looking for places to build nests:

Wasps try and build their nests in locations that provide shelter from the elements. Hollow logs, unused bulkheads, the eaves of an attic, and window sills all provide much-needed protection from the elements, as well as predators like birds.

The perfect place for a wasp to build a nest that checks all those boxes: a mailbox.

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The Daily Mail shared that some USPS workers will leave dryer sheets in the back of mailboxes in order to ward off wasps and other nesting insects from building there. The insects don't like the smell of the sheets, and if that sheet is there, it'll prevent the mail carrier from accidentally reaching into an unknown nest. No nest means no unwanted stings and bites this summer.

In a post to Reddit, a letter carrier shared that you can help mailmen and women yourself by putting dryer sheets in your mailbox yourself. It doesn't matter the brand, just check it every now and then to make sure there is still a strong scent to the sheet.

I'll be adding a dryer sheet to my own mailbox this week, I know I'd hate to reach in and get stung, and I know if I was a mail carrier I wouldn't want that either. Tossing a dryer sheet in the mailbox is the easiest thing we can do to help out our mail men and women.

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