Special Interest

UV Night Hike

Mica Bendezu

30 Sep 2025 — 1 min read

A piece of string on the ground under UV flashlight.

On September 11, 2025 I went with my group on a Naturalist-guided night-time hike on an Alum Creek State Park trail. We were provided with UV flashlights to look for fluorescent wildlife and fungi.

On the hike, we were all surprised at how much trash we found. We saw some spiders, lots of glow worms, and even more garbage. Mostly angler waste--fishing line, hooks, and plastic bait.

It turns out that clear fishing line, which is hard to spot in daylight, is vibrant under UV light. So are polyester fibers and other plastic litter.

We did our best to collect whatever trash we spotted throughout the hike.

"I feel like I'm in a crime scene. Just litter and pollution," the naturalist muttered.

A photo of some of the trash we collected during our hike.

No generative AI was used in the creation of this post.

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