Er, why do you want to sterilise them? All we do is crush them up and put them on the compost heap.

We have a coal cooker and I pop them in one of the ovens. I suppose you could boil them up. I use them crushed up to try and keep slugs etc off plants in pots.
Owdboggy if the egg has not been cooked I might worry about introducing bugs. A friend who has a nursery gave me a large packet of a so called organic solution to get rid of slugs. It stank so much it went in the bin. I preferred the slugs. Composting would break down the smell but I'm not sure if adding uncooked eggshell would be safe even in compost.

i just put them straight in compost or failing that straigt onto the soil they don,t cause any problems

scotsgran tut tut :):):)

i just wash them in washing up liquid and pop them out.

Serious question, why would you want to sterilize, clean or otherwise beautify egg shells which are for the compost.

Most strange !!!!

I find that eggshells take so long to rot down (two weeks short of never) that I put them in the rubbish bin!

Bulbaholic is correct which is why we crush them, at least then they are no longer visible.

I didn't think they went onto the compost to rot down....i thought they were there to help drainage etc, just make the compost a bit more open type thing !!!!

I can't understand why they need to be sterilized either - after all you put all sorts of plants on the compost, including poisonous ones and they don't harm when rotted down. Surely any *bugs* will die over time.

what,s all this washing egg shell business/sterilising.and wotnot,just get down and get dirty

Never thought of washing them, but I too have given up trying to compost them as they don't.

I know only a few people have been badly hit recently by bugs in bought in compost but I would not want to risk my grandchildren picking up anything when they are helping me. Salmonella was found in eggs (remember Edwina Currie) and I do not use raw eggs in food even though we only buy free range ones.

Sorry, this is sounding a bit ridiculous. What's wrong with the children washing their hands and they surely aren't going to be grubbing around in the compost heap. Just tell them not to. Or an even better solution, don't put egg shells in the compost! If you want to be frightened, there is probably more chance of you getting tetanus from your soil - I knew a man who died from pricking his finger on a rose.

But Salmonella is already in your soil Scotsgran. It lives in the intestines of a lot of animals, especially birds. So when the birds poop on your garden it gets into your soil. That's why free range eggs are more likely to contain Salmonella... They are roaming free and peck at the ground. Battery hens are very unlikely to have Salmonella. So I wouldn't worry about sterilizing the shells against Salmonella it's a waste of time, it's already there.

I thought that the egg shells just leached calcium into the compost & this is the reason for adding them, not to rot down. We're too hygiene crazy these days & it's even believed by some medics that the causes of some allergies is because we live in too sterile an environment. I don't know, but my shells go on compost heap just as they are.

Well said Feverfew.

Unusual thread.

Personally I crush them up as a slug deterrent. Works a bit.

Otherwise straight in bean trench or compost bin. As has been written you can die of old age waiting for them to rot down.