What to do with dead snails

[Zalman]

I found a few snails in my tank dead the other day ( the annoying ones who can't flip themselves over - I am usually good about flipping them back but these 3 weren't so lucky). I would like to use the shells for my hermit crabs but they smell horrid and I dont really wanna put this stuff in my water.

Suggestions on how to clean these shells so I can reuse them?
I tried placing them near my rock to see if I could get some bristle worms to clean them but no luck.

[J2T]

I'm surprised your hermits haven't taken care of them. I have found my hermits and peppermint shrimp would quickly clean up any dead snails. I'm guessing you are talking about astrea snails? I don't buy them anymore because of the reason they can't right themselves and they fall over often.

[cloak]

If astrea snails can't right themselves, how long do you think they can live before they die due to starvation? Six hours, 12 hours, 24 hours? My guess is that this wasn't the case. It was something else that killed these snails. (hermit crab, parameters etc) IME, I've seen way too many astrea snails roll over on there own. They might not be as quick as some of the other snails out there, but they can do it.
Either way though, if you think a snail is dead it's best to remove it. If you want to reuse the shells, just give them a good rinse under the faucet and you should be fine. Make sure to get all the "gunk" out of the shell though. (If there's any left)

[Zalman]

These were actually in my refugium in my basement. No hermit crabs there and all that tank does is grow cheato and hold my DSB so I typically dont spend as much time staring into it.
I have dozens of snails in my DT and fuge and these were the only ones affected. Leads me to believe they couldn't right themselves after falling.
My original thought was to let my hermits clean out the shells so I placed them in my DT for a bit. I had 1 nassarius climb all over 1 of the shells and that was it. I didn't was to release unneccesary gunk into my water so I pulled the shells out. Rinsed them a ton tried my best to clean them out.

They smelled kinda funky but seemed to be clean and they are small enough compared to my system so I wont lose sleep over it. Just wasn't sure if there was an easier or more surefire way to clean them.

[mndfreeze]

in a 180G tank I highly doubt a few snails will do anything at all. I leave dead snails in my 20G tall even and my cuc cleans them up quick like.