Found top of empty turtle shell

Question
QUESTION: Hi my name is Angela and I live in Michigan. My daughter and I were taking a walk in the woods by the apartments we live in and I spotted an empty turtle shell but it was only the top half of it. The question I have is how can I clean it properly because I think this would be a great show and tell item for my daughter to take to school with her when they do the letter T in class. Any information you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Angela

ANSWER: Hi Angela,

I'm not sure if you want to just disinfect it for handling or if there's any tissue left that needs to be cleaned (sorry, yuck!).  If you just need to disinfect it, you can use a 10% bleach solution (one part bleach to ten parts water)--just soak it for a few minutes and then rinse it off.  This may cause some discoloration, but probably not too much as long as you don't use too much bleach.  The scutes (scales) may loosen (if they're still on; they usually come off over time after death), but I don't think you can really prevent that.  They can be softened in water and glued back on if you want to do that.  If there is tissue remaining, the best method is probably to put the shell out in your yard and let insects do the cleaning for you.  Hope this helped!

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Underside of turtle sh   QUESTION: Here is a picture of the underside of the shell. What do you think I should do?

Answer
Hi Angela,

It doesn't look too bad--nature's already done most of the work for you.  You can probably take a soft toothbrush and some soapy water and clean off any remaining bits.  Then do the bleaching, and it should be clean enough to take to school.