✅ SOLVED Ran across this by a stream today.

[Mud Hut]

What kind of turtle is it? I was still alive, but its shell was cracked, and some sort of bugs moved in. What kind of bugs are they?

 

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[Cactus Pete]

Appears to be a doomed turtle.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

I think it was a painted box turtle.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Your beetles (not bugs) are American Carrion Beetles (Necrophelia americana). Come back in a week and there won't be a morsel of flesh left unless something bigger joins in.

The turtle appears to be a bashed Eastern Painted Turtle.

 

[Mud Hut]

Thanks all!

 

[Garrett424]

Poor creature.
I would have put it out of it's misery without batting an eye.

 

[Loco-Digger]

It could possibly be saved by irrigating the wound to get dirt, bugs and debris out using hydrogen peroxide. And to close the shell, super glue or epoxy a piece of plastic over the area where the shell was damaged.