Preserving a big ol' turtle shell...help!

[KFC911]

Done a bit of research online, have a question...some say spray it with polyurethane, or something, but I don't want a shiney, glossy, fake look...the more natural the better. Can anyone suggest some polyurethane spray that won't be glossy? Thanks!

[KFC911]

I should've searched before posting....lots of choices of matte sprays...

If anyone has other advice, options, feel free to respond, but I think I'm set...

[Jon B]

[craigster59]

I was going to suggest paste wax buy Jon B seems to be more of the turtle expert.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by Jon B

LOL.. shoulda known better than asking here....but I did...well played sir

[island911]

LOL Jon B FTW


KC, I have to ask, Why?

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by island911

LOL Jon B FTW


KC, I have to ask, Why?

He got me good .

My uncle wants to keep the shell. I've had to eliminate just a few of the big ol' Snappers in my ponds (I also trap and relocate the over populated Slider turtles too), but the snappers get shot...just way too many HUGE ones, with no other predators for several decades....some needed to be removed. That makes number 5... not as large as the other four, and others I've passed on, but still a nice shell...mebbe 20 inches. I don't know if y'all are familiar with Snappers, but they are some nasty, mean, prehistoric critters....and mess with my fishys so that's why. Managing ponds is all about balance...I'm just reducing a few of the HUGE ones....not total ellmination. I don't kill for trophies or sport...but the turtle population became an issue.

[Bill Douglas]

Reply of the year Jon

[id10t]

Email sent to a buddy who is a sysadmin at a natural history museum, so he can ask cow-orkers

[id10t]

Reply received - from teh guy in charge of prepping specimens for the Fla Museum of Natural History at UF here in Gainesville -


"Sure, the best way to get a nice intact turtle shell is to clean off as much tissue as possible and them put in into a dermestid beetle colony to eat the rest of the tissues. That's what we do here in the museum. The beetles eat every bit of the soft tissue and leave a nice, cleaned and articulated skeleton or shell in this case. We maintain a beetle colony on campus to prep museum specimens. However, our colony can unfortunately only be used for museum specimens. But you can also achieve similar results by placing the shell next to an ant colony on your property and let the ants remove all the remaining tissue. Maceration in water can also be used, but that will disarticulate the bones of the shell, which I don't think is what you want. I think using ants is the best way to achieve the results you are looking for. Just watch for other wildlife that may want to run off with it as well!

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any additional questions!"

[tevake]

Was watching a Cajun cooking show the other week, they were doing an old recipe for snapping turtle.

KC911. You may be sitting on a culinary mother load.

Cheers Richard

[911 Rod]

I remember as a kid my father wanting to do the same thing.
He figured boiling it was the way to go.
The shell fell apart and the house stunk for days.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by 911 Rod

I remember as a kid my father wanting to do the same thing.
He figured boiling it was the way to go.
The shell fell apart and the house stunk for days.

from the expert I asked - "Maceration in water can also be used, but that will disarticulate the bones of the shell,"

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by tevake

Was watching a Cajun cooking show the other week, they were doing an old recipe for snapping turtle.

KC911. You may be sitting on a culinary mother load.

Cheers Richard

The shell was cleaned buy my uncle two daze ago....I'll tell him to retrieve our windfall, but I bet other critters have eaten our fortune already....oh well . Thanks all for your suggstions....appreciate it!

Turtle Wax

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by tevake

Was watching a Cajun cooking show the other week, they were doing an old recipe for snapping turtle.

KC911. You may be sitting on a culinary mother load.

Cheers Richard

Two words...

Guitar picks!

[stevej37]

When fishing with my grandpa...he would always set out a separate line hooked to a floating block of wood for turtles. If a snapper took the bait..he would throw it back. But a box turtle, we would take home and split it for the meat. Much better eating..he said. Box turtles are now protected..I never see them around any more.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by stevej37

When fishing with my grandpa...he would always set out a separate line hooked to a floating block of wood for turtles. If a snapper took the bait..he would throw it back. But a box turtle, we would take home and split it for the meat. Much better eating..he said. Box turtles are now protected..I never see them around any more.

Think your critter IDs are off. Box turtles are actually tortises, so land based only.

[stevej37]

^^^ The eastern box turtle is a subspecies of the common box turtle (Terrapene carolina). While in the pond turtle family, Emydidae, and not a tortoise, the box turtle is largely terrestrial.[3] Box turtles are slow crawlers, extremely long lived, slow to mature, and have relatively few offspring per year. These characteristics, along with a propensity to get hit by cars and agricultural machinery, make all box turtle species particularly susceptible to anthropogenic, or human-induced, mortality.

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