You can. Take a dirty dish, wipe it clean with paper towels, then set it in direct sun for 20 minutes.

You can investigate how well this works by first creating a bunch of culture dishes. Jar lids set on a cookie sheet work ok, cover the sheet with cling wrap. Fill the lids with jello made according to directions, but add a half teaspoon of water soluble garden fertilizer to the batch of jello. Miracle gro is great.

Boil your lids before filling them. Bleach the cookie sheet.

Divide your lids into 5 groups:

Group 1: Using a clean Q-tip, draw a line on a culture plate. If doing multiple plates, use a fresh end each time.

Group 2: This time use dishes from the dishwasher. Rub the q-tip on the freshly washed dish then on the culture plate.

Group 3: Like group 2,but dishes from the cupboard.

Group 4: Dishes that you ahve "sun washed"

Group 5: Your kitchen floor. 'cause, why not?"

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Put the cling wrap over the tray and set it somewhere warm Top of the fridge is out of the way.