S2E34 Night Hike: Following Microbes Into the Dark

What changes when the sun goes down? In the final episode of From Sunrise to Starlight, we're heading down a summer trail as dusk gives way to darkness, following the microbes—and the vectors and hosts that carry them—into the night. We'll explore why different mosquitoes keep different schedules, how ticks find hosts, what wildlife encounters actually mean for zoonotic disease risk, and how artificial light can alter nighttime ecology. Then we'll emerge from the woods beside a dark lake, turn off the flashlight, and look up. Because infectious-disease risk isn't simply about which pathogens are present. It's about encounters: where they happen, when they happen, and how microbes, vectors, hosts, and human behavior come together. Night Hike: Following Microbes Into the Dark closes our August journey from the first light of morning to a lake beneath the stars. All citations in the companion blog post at Infectious Dose.