Cell phones -- that small piece of electronic equipment people so frequently put up to their faces are great places to harbor bacteria and germs. But does anybody ever bother to clean them?

"I don't think I've ever cleaned it," says Melissa Jaroneski.

"I'll just, like, rub it down on my sweat pants," explains Joseph Reed.

Adds Justin Swanson, "It's just, like, tongue and thumb method."

"It seems like a waste of time," says Ian Mattoon.

Of the ten randomly selected people we talked to only one actually cleaned their cell phone.

"I'll use a clorox wipe on it," says Carol Beard. "But I only do it about once a month."

So, we decided to do a little experiment. That's where MSU Microbiology professor Thomas Corner comes in.

"Roll it [the swab] completely, because you want to get sample on all parts of the swab."

He provided us with tools we needed.

"So you can use as many of these [swabs] as you want."

And out we went -- to swab ten cell phones -- five men, five women -- to see just exactly what was growing on their phones.

"It's going to be pretty nasty," says Jaroneski.

Oh, and to make it interesting, we decided why not swab a few inanimate objects to compare the phones to? So we swabbed a toilet seat, a trash can, an ATM, and a pay phone. We brought the samples back to the lab for Professor Corner to prepare.

"Now we're just going to rub that [swab] over the surface of the plate."

Three plates for each specimen -- one to check for general bacteria, another for staph, and one for E.Coli. After growing in an incubator for a week, we had our results.

"We will see some of the Staphlococci. We also have a variety of other skin bacteria," explains Professor Corner. "We also have some soil organisms that people have picked up either through dust or when they tied their shoes or something."

But what does that mean?

"Generally speaking, it's all going to be harmless," he says. "It's just the kind of thing we come in contact with all the time."

Professor Corner says it's bacteria that's adjusted to growing on the skin.

"If we're healthy and we take normal precautions, they're not going to be a problem."

Isopropyl alcohol is one of the best ways to keep your phone clear of germs and bacteria. Professor Corner recommends cleaning it as often as you wash your hands. And you should concentrate on wiping the face as well as the back.

"Really the best way to do it would be to wash your hands on a regular basis," he says. "That will reduce the amount of transfer from your hands to the phone."

So back to the results of our experiment. As far as cell phones are concerned, Tyler Klifman and Thomas Bunting, tied for having the dirtiest cell phones in the group. The cleanest? Carol Beard -- the lady who wipes her cell phone down once a month with a clorox wipe. Of all the cell phones and inanimate objects, the pay phone came out as the dirtiest, followed by Tyler Klifman's cell, and then the ATM. And the item that had the least growth, but wasn't necessarily the cleanest was the toilet seat. It goes to show bacteria and germs aren't alway lurking in the most obvious places.