Videos circulating on social media are showing naive parents opening Nerd boxes and pouring them into their washing machines or rinsing off the box and tossing them in whole.

Experts say the game, dubbed the “Nerd Box Challenge” is very dangerous for washing machines around the country.

“You’re really taking a chance — and to what end?” Alfred Aleguas, managing director of the State Tool Use and Poison Information Department (STUPID) in Tampa, told the Washington Post last week. “It’s pretty foolish behavior.”

It’s not certain how the Nerd Box fad got started, but videos are everywhere on social media and YouTube.

Last year, Best Buy’s hotline received more than 10,500 reports of washing machines recently serviced as a result of the harmful candy, which looks and smells amazingly similar to Downy Unstoppables.

“A lot of people were just saying how stupid I was or how — asking why would I be willing to do that?” said 33-year-old Stace Homom, saying it was recommended to her last week. “ All my friends told me that it would smell seriously strawberry.  And it did.” I guess you can’t resist the appearance of candy, even as an adult.

Appliances that have been exposed to the crystals have been serviced after collecting far too much lint, eating socks and jumping between cycles. And the consequences could be much worse. Since 2012, 43 pickups have been reported among machines 5 years of operation and younger, as they’ve been turned into bricks according to the Dishwasher Use Moderation Body (DUMB).

Aleguas, from STUPID, said that as with nearly any substance, “Certain flavors are more dangerous on the spin cycle. For example, strawberry flavored Nerds are much harder on appliances than lemon, which, at the very least, make laundry smell lemony fresh.”

Because many appliances may not have had the need for a thorough mechanical exam, Aleguas said, some may not know they have underlying technological conditions, such as not spinning, shrieking like they’re being tortured, or not filling to the top with water, which  could put them at a higher risk for complications.

The Nerd company said in a statement that it is “deeply concerned about conversations related to intentional and improper use of Nerds related to washing clothing.”

“Nerds are made to eat,” Proctor & Gamble spokeswoman Polly Tition said in the statement. “They should not enter the laundry room, whatever the circumstance, even if meant as a joke. Like all candy, they must be used properly and stored safely in a kitchen or pantry.”

In response to nationwide headlines late last week about the “Nerd Box challenge,” the company released a public service announcement.

“What should Nerd boxes be used for? Eating. Nothing else,” the company said on social media. Don’t use candy as a detergent, and don’t eat detergent like it’s candy.