Some of the best hacks in the world can be found on the internet- and if you have a bug problem, then this one could be for you!
US postman Chris Strickley has encountered his fair share of issues since he began his job almost 6 years ago.
But one of the most irritating by far has to be the various different critters that lie in wait for him.
Luckily, he has the perfect hack for keeping them away.
In a Reddit post titled, “If you randomly see a dryer sheet in the back of your mailbox, your mail carrier put it there for a reason,” Chris explains exactly why some mail carriers swear by this unique hack.
During the warmer weather of the spring and summertime, certain insects like yellow jackets and wasps make nests in mailboxes.
Since it’s still fairly cold at night, mailboxes are the perfect shelter for these pesky insects.
Having a nest of stinging insects in your mailbox is less than desirable, but we especially feel for the mailmen who might not be aware of the nest until it’s too late.
Chris found that he was getting stung countless times throughout the warmer months, and he found the perfect hack for getting rid of the offending critters.
But for it to work, other people were going to have to get on board.
For this reason, Chris took to Reddit to hopefully share his hack with the world.
“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,” he wrote. “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.”
The 31-year-old mailman revealed that he was stung a whopping 10 separate times in the last year.
Luckily, he found the perfect solution at just the right time: dryer sheets!
It turns out that this unlikely material does a great job at keeping the bees and wasps away from people’s mailboxes.
Who’d have thought?
“I began to see dryer sheets in people’s mailboxes at the start of spring,” Chris recalled. “At first, I was confused but just left them in there. Later on, I noticed my supervisor had a box of them on their desk and would see other carriers taking handfuls out.”
“That’s when I finally asked why they were supplying them to us and found out they are a good deterrent for wasps and yellowjackets.
Ever since then, they’re a normal part of my spring and summer.”
For some unknown reason, bees and wasps can’t stand scented dryer sheets.
Just one little sheet is enough to quickly clear a nest out of your mailbox, or deter insects from building a nest there in the first place.
If you ever open your mailbox and find that it contains a dryer sheet, don’t be confused- as your mailman is actually doing you a favor!
The best thing to do is to leave the sheet in there to help keep the pesky critters away.
“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,” Chris wrote.
