Tennessee, If You See A Dryer Sheet In Your Mailbox, Leave It There

A random dryer sheet in your mailbox might seem weird, sure, but there's a genius reason that actually keeps your family safe.

Who Put It In There?

If you see a dryer sheet in your mailbox, the highest odds are that your mail carrier or package delivery driver put it there for their own protection, and you get to reap the benefits as well.

The Reason For Dryer Sheets

We know that with warmer weather comes the pesky bugs that hang around our homes, and not all of them are completely harmless. If you live in Tennessee, you already know you'll be seeing plenty of the flying pests in your yard.

Some bugs are less welcome than others, because they're more than just mean or annoying. Wasps and yellowjackets are some of the worst bugs found in nature. Heck, there are even some that are called "Killer" because of their venom and aggressive tendencies. 

Mail carriers already have to work hard, walking miles every day just so we get the valuable information we need. They don't need to worry about anything other than getting us our mail, so if they take precautions to make sure they aren't getting stung when they stick their hand in my mailbox, I'm going to leave whatever it is.

Apparently, dryer sheets emit a scent that wasps, hornets, bees, and other insects with stingers don't like. It's the strength of the scent that keeps them away, and that strength in a closed mailbox smells up the whole mailbox to smell just like a fresh load of laundry.

Dryer Sheets Can Do More

So if these sheets work to keep bugs out of your mailbox, can they keep bugs off of you? The short answer is... it just depends.

Goaptive reports "Although dryer sheets haven’t been officially proven to repel mosquitoes, their effectiveness hasn’t been disproven, either. It’s possible these common household items are a successful mosquito-repellant."

So it's worth a try if you're out doing yard work, just stick some dryer sheets in the collar of your shirt.

Stay safe this spring and summer.