Viruses are the smallest type of microbe that can only reproduce inside host cells. Unlike bacteria, viruses cannot move on their own and come in various shapes and sizes. Viruses are found almost everywhere in the environment from soil and water to air, waiting to infect plant, animal, and bacterial cells. When a virus infects a cell, it takes over the cell's machinery to reproduce itself before causing the cell to burst and release new virus particles to infect neighboring cells.