Ditch Mafia

06/17/2026

What’s in the Water Wednesday? (Carolina Beach Edition!)

Ditch Mafia took a weekend in NC… and no matter where you are, just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s gone. This is just a taste of what we collected.

Too often, trash gets buried beneath the sand instead of being thrown away. Plastic, cans, cigarette butts, and other litter don’t simply disappear—they can remain buried for years, slowly breaking into microplastics that pollute our beaches and oceans.

Sea turtles, shorebirds, crabs, and other coastal wildlife can dig it up, mistake it for food, or become entangled in it. Storms and high tides can uncover buried trash and carry it straight into our waterways.

The beach isn’t a trash can. If you pack it in, pack it out. Better yet, leave it cleaner than you found it.

Every piece removed is one less hazard for wildlife and one step toward healthier beaches.

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06/08/2026

If you go in the ditch, you should know this…

Mafia Intel Monday:

Learning starts your week off right.

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06/04/2026

A single bucket, buried flush with the ground, becomes a functioning wildlife pond. Not a birdbath — a complete food web that runs itself. Cost is zero. 🌿

What shows up on its own within weeks, without any stocking or intervention:

Dragonflies arrive within days. Their larvae spend one to two years hunting underwater before emerging — while adults patrol above and take significant numbers of mosquitoes on the wing.

Native tree frogs — green tree frogs in the Southeast, gray tree frogs across the East and Midwest, Pacific tree frogs in the West — locate standing water reliably. Once they find it, they return each season and feed heavily on garden insects through the night.

American robins and other ground-feeding birds use pond water at soil level in ways they will not use an elevated birdbath. Ground-level water mimics a natural puddle — exactly what most garden wildlife is actually looking for.

Native toads (American toad, Fowler's toad, depending on your region) will use the stone ramp and breed in still water. Note: if you are in Florida or Hawaii, cane toads are an invasive species — do not encourage them.

The four things that make this work:
- A stone ramp at one edge so frogs, toads, and birds can walk in and out
- A sturdy branch angled from the bottom to the rim as an escape route for anything that falls in
- A gravel or rock layer on the bottom for aquatic insect larvae to shelter in
- A native aquatic plant — dwarf cattail, blue flag iris, or pickerelweed — for oxygen and perching 🌱

Ground-level water is what most backyard wildlife needs and almost no garden provides.

06/03/2026

That dragonfly hovering over your yard?

It's the deadliest mosquito hunter on the planet.

A single dragonfly eats 30 to hundreds of mosquitoes
per day. It catches them mid-flight. At speeds up to
30 mph. With a 95% success rate.

For context: a lion's kill rate is about 25%.
A great white shark's is about 50%.

The dragonfly makes them look amateur.

And it's been doing this for 300 million years.
Dragonflies predate dinosaurs. They've been perfecting
mosquito murder since before trees existed.

Their larvae — which live underwater for 1-3 years
before becoming adults — eat mosquito larvae. So they
kill mosquitoes in BOTH life stages. In the water as
babies. In the air as adults.

A backyard with a healthy dragonfly population has
virtually no mosquito problem.

But here's what kills dragonflies:

Mosquito foggers and yard spray services. The same
products you pay $100/month for to kill mosquitoes?
They kill dragonflies too. And the dragonfly was
doing the job better. For free.

Pesticides kill the solution along with the problem.
Then the mosquitoes come back first. The dragonflies
take years to recover. You spray again. Repeat.

How to attract dragonflies:
A small pond or water feature — even a whiskey barrel
pond. Dragonflies need standing water to breed.
Native plants around the water's edge — tall grasses
and reeds for perching.
Don't use mosquito dunks in your dragonfly pond —
they kill the dragonfly larvae too.
Stop the mosquito spray service. Let nature handle it.
Flat rocks in sunny spots near water — dragonflies
bask to regulate body temperature.

You're paying $1,200/year for mosquito spray.

The dragonfly does it better. For the cost of a
$40 whiskey barrel.

Stop spraying. Start attracting.

06/03/2026

What’s in the Water Wednesday? Beach Edition:

Discarded fishing line and plastic bags are more than just litter—they can be deadly.
Fishing line can entangle birds, sea turtles, and marine life, causing injury or preventing them from feeding. (Also no one wants a hook in their foot!)
Plastic bags are often mistaken for food like jellyfish, especially by sea turtles, leading to serious harm or death.

A clean beach isn’t just prettier—it’s safer for the wildlife that calls it home.

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06/03/2026

06/02/2026

She has fifty teeth, venom immunity, and the lowest body temperature of any mammal her size. Most people see her crossing the yard at midnight and assume the worst.

🌿 The opossum doesn't dig up gardens. She doesn't chew wiring. She doesn't start territory fights with the pets. She eats the slugs, the beetles, the grubs, and the fallen fruit — then disappears into the brush pile before sunrise.

She's the only marsupial in North America. Opposable thumbs on her hind feet. A prehensile tail that grips branches. And a body temperature so low that most viruses can't replicate in her system.

A brush pile in a quiet corner. That's the entire ask 🐾

06/02/2026

2 feet long. 65 million years old. Breathes through its skin. And your runoff is killing it.

The hellbender — America's most ancient and endangered amphibian.

THE ANIMAL:

→ Largest salamander in North America (up to 29 inches)
→ Third-largest salamander in the WORLD
→ 65 million years old as a species (survived the dinosaur extinction)
→ Nicknames: "snot otter," "devil dog," "old lasagna sides"
→ Wrinkled skin folds increase surface area for oxygen absorption

THE BREATHING:

→ Absorbs 90%+ of oxygen through its SKIN
→ Needs cold, fast-flowing, clean streams with high dissolved oxygen
→ If water quality drops: suffocates
→ Indicator species: hellbender = clean water

THE CRISIS:

→ Populations declined 70%+ in many rivers
→ Listed as endangered or threatened in most of its range
→ Causes: sedimentation, dams, pollution, disease, collection
→ Chytrid fungus devastating remaining populations
→ Reproduction failing in many rivers (no juveniles found)

WHAT'S BEING DONE:

→ Captive breeding and head-starting programs (zoos raising babies for release)
→ Stream restoration and riparian buffer plantings
→ Nest box programs (artificial rocks with cameras)
→ Citizen science monitoring

65 million years. Survived everything.

Except us.

06/02/2026

I WASN’T SWIMMING IN YOUR POOL.
I WAS CIRCLING A WALL I COULD NOT CLIMB.

You saw me near the blue water.

Small.
Dark.
Moving slowly along the edge.

Maybe you thought I liked it there.

Maybe you thought I had chosen your pool like it was a pond.
Maybe you waited for me to “find my way out.”

But I was not swimming.

I was trapped.

I am a toad.

My body is made for damp grass, garden soil, leaves, night air, and insects under porch lights.

Not smooth tile.
Not chlorine.
Not a deep blue wall with no root, rock, mud, or branch to hold.

I kept circling because every wild body searches for an edge that makes sense.

But your pool had no shore.

The water touched my skin.
The chemicals touched my skin.
My strength ran out one circle at a time.

Please do not leave me for morning.

Use a pool net, bucket, or container to lift me out gently.
Place me in a shaded, damp spot away from the pool.
Check the skimmer basket before turning the pump on.

And please give the next small life a way out.

A floating escape ramp.
A rough board.
A rope along the edge.
A pool cover when the pool is not in use.

Because I was not enjoying your backyard.

I was drowning quietly
beside a wall that looked like water
but had no way back to land.

Backyard pools can be deadly for wildlife because animals may fall in or mistake them for natural water, then be unable to climb out over steep, smooth sides. Humane World recommends escape devices such as FrogLog or Skamper-Ramp, and PETA also suggests ramps, ropes near the waterline, pool covers, and fencing to reduce drownings.