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A bag of Cheetos left on the floor of Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico triggered mold on the cavern floor and nearby cave formations.
"To the ecosystem of the cave it had a huge impact," the park says.
Rangers and volunteers collect tons of trash left behind by visitors each year as part of an ongoing battle to keep unique ecosystems from being compromised.
As many as 2,000 people go through the caverns on any given day during a busy season .
With them come hair and skin fragments, and those fragments can have their own microbes on board.
"So it can be really, really bad or it can just be us and all the stuff we're shedding," microbiologist says.