Saturday, January 12, 2008

Duct tape and warts: how the HECK does it work?

Duct tape as a wart treatment is not alternative medicine.

Really. It's been studied a few times ... (emphasis mine):
Duct Tape More Effective than Cryotherapy for Warts - February 1, 2003 - American Family Physician (KARL E. MILLER, M.D.)

Focht DR III, et al. The efficacy of duct tape vs cryotherapy in the treatment of verruca vulgaris (the common wart). Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med October 2002;156:971-4.

Common warts (verruca vulgaris) are a common problem among patients who present in family physicians' offices. Although a significant number of warts will spontaneously resolve over two years, patients frequently request treatment to clear their skin of the lesions. Treatments such as cryotherapy, acid preparations, laser therapy, heat, and tape occlusion have been used in the management of warts, with cure rates ranging from 32 to 93 percent. However, most of these therapies are expensive, painful, or labor intensive. A few small, nonrandomized trials have studied the use of tape occlusion in wart treatment, with one study reporting cure rates of approximately 80 percent. Focht and associates compared the effectiveness of cryotherapy with duct tape applied to common warts.

The study was a prospective, randomized controlled trial with two treatment arms. Participants were patients three to 22 years of age who had viral warts and presented to a military clinic. Participants were randomized to receive cryotherapy or occlusive therapy with duct tape. Cryotherapy consisted of 10-second applications of liquid nitrogen to each wart every two to three weeks for a maximum of six treatments. The other group applied small pieces of duct tape to each wart. They were instructed to leave the tape in place for six days and were taught how to re-apply tape if it fell off. At the end of the sixth day, the patients removed the duct tape, soaked the wart in water, and gently debrided it with an emery board or pumice stone. The tape was left off overnight, then re-applied for another six days. This pattern was repeated for two months or until the wart resolved. Warts that did not resolve were measured. The main outcome measured was complete resolution of the wart.

In patients treated with duct tape, 85 percent of the warts completely resolved, compared with 60 percent in the cryotherapy group. These results were statistically significant. Resolution of warts treated with duct tape usually occurred within the first 28 days of therapy. If there was no response within the first two weeks, the warts were unlikely to respond to a longer course of therapy. The main adverse outcomes with duct-tape therapy were difficulty keeping the tape on the wart and minor skin irritation. The main adverse effect in the cryotherapy group was mild to severe pain at the freeze site during and after the treatment.

The authors conclude that duct tape occlusive therapy is more effective than cryotherapy in the treatment of common warts. They also state that duct tape therapy is less expensive and has fewer adverse effects than cryotherapy.
This business of treating warts in children with duct tape has been around for at least 16 years, but I've never really believed in it.

It's just so weird.

Then my 8yo developed a quite impressive toe wart. A flowering exuberant growth. It bugged him, but there was absolutely no way he was going to have it incinerated or freeze-burned. No friggin' way.

So we tried the weird duct tape treatment. An old silver roll.

Over the next few days, when we reapplied the tape, the wart started to look sickly. It's vessels appeared dusky, as though they were occluding. Then the entire toe started to appear mildly inflamed - swollen and red.

The next evening my son proudly displayed an impressive crater where the wart had been. It had fallen off. Within a few days the crater was gone, though I think there's some warty material remaining. (We're reapplying the tape.)

Ok, so there are skeptics, and if it does work then it's probably limited to children and adolescents with good immune systems. In these cases the immune system is perfectly capable of clobbering a wart, but first it has to recognize it as foreign.

So, how could it possibly work?

There, PubMed failed me. I couldn't find any interest in how this thing might work.

Doesn't that display a certain lack of imagination? Viral warts have many of the properties of tumors, and of course immune tolerance and rejection is important. Heck, apoptosis is still somewhat fashionable. Isn't anyone interested in how this treatment actually works?

I suspect this one runs into three problems:
  1. It's so weird that most researchers don't believe it works.
  2. If it works they figure this is some kind of "mind over immunology" thing, and there's no tenure in chasing that one.
  3. Duct tape is cheap.
We need a bored tenured faculty person with an animal lab to study this in animals. If we found that duct tape cured animal warts we'd then be able to figure out what it's doing.

Update 8/31/08: The comments are interesting. I particularly like the suggestion a few degree change in local temperature might be enough to impact the wart/body war, though it's fair to mention that plantar warts thrive in a pretty warm environment.

144 comments:

Anonymous said...

I use duct tape on corns - it works more gently than commercial corn removers. I started when I wanted to tape up my foot for something else and duct tape was all I had. I assumed it worked because of some ingredient in the adhesive. Who needs insurance when we have duct tape?

Anonymous said...

Great post, it should be forwarded to Garrison Keillor to enliven his “message from the American Duct Tape Council.” On The Prairie Home Companion Show!
Alan

Anonymous said...

Great post, it should be forwarded to Garrison Keillor to enliven his “message from the American Duct Tape Council.” On The Prairie Home Companion Show!
Alan

dfphil said...

Doesn't the duct tape just starve them of oxygen?

JGF said...

Hi David! In theory the wart gets its oxygen through its vessels. Actually, I wonder about some nasty industrial contaminant. Cadmium?

Ed Johnson said...

My guess was that it had to do with a component of the adhesive. Someone should conduct a study with the old-fashioned original duct tape, one or two newer brands (Scotch, etc.), and a control group. I'd bet the old silver stuff works the best.

Ed Johnson said...

I've always presumed it had to do with a component of the adhesive or the material that was used as part of the backing (fiberglass?) It would certainly explain why the original stuff worked better than the transparent tape. Someone should do a study of this involving the original duct tape, one or two of the newer brands (Scotch, etc.), and a control group. My guess would be the old silver stuff would work best.

Anonymous said...

I'm certainly no doctor; but I might be able to offer a possible explanation:
Warts are caused by a virus.
Most virii are heat-labile at barely above body temperature (about 109 degrees).
Perhaps the duct tape creates a local 'hot spot' that eliminates the virus; and the body takes care of the actual wart tissue...

JGF said...

Robert,

I think that's a very interesting hypothesis.

Certainly seems testable. The balance between the war and the immune system is fairly fine, so a small shift could make a difference.

Oxygen levels in the wart might also differ, leading to increased necrosis, etc.

Unknown said...

duck tape works. I just got rid of 2 warts i had for many years. i think it works by alerting the immune system by covering the wart. By covering the wart, it makes it like its inside the body, and not on the exterior. Just my opinion, but it worked. many thanks to duck tape. tim

dfphil said...

Since this thread is still alive - which isn't bad for being nine months old - I thought I'd add that I was listening to a podcast for WNYC's radiolab on the placebo effect which was completely fascinating. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2008/01/04 Apparently amongst the many surprising things placebos can help with are warts!
I never would have thought that possible. Who knows what secrets lie hidden in duct tape?

JGF said...

Hi David,

I think it's the nature of this blog that I get very long lived comment threads -- probably because most people read it via google searches.

Hypnotism also works pretty well for some warts, it usually aligns with placebo (same mechanism).

Warts are fascinating and weird.

So the duct tape effect could be placebo, but there's nothing wrong with that. Placebo is a very good thing, in the right hands there can be few side-effects.

(Most people forget that if placebo can have benefits, it can also have ... toxicity.)

Anonymous said...

I just started duct tape therapy yesterday on a wart that has been on my finger for 6 or 7 years. Already it is really sore and tender. I will keep you all posted.

Anonymous said...

I've been trying it to, adam, but i swim twice a day for 2 hours (four hours in the water monday-saturday) so i'm not sure if the pool water has gotten under it. Anyone think that's preventing it from working?

Unknown said...

Maybe it has to do with the fact that Duct Tape doesn't allow oxygen in? I believe people have died when their skin is covered in the stuff. It's worth looking into, and would make sense.

Anonymous said...

Help needed! I started duct tape on several warts on my foot almost two weeks ago. I am seeing progress. Because readers know warts are "fascinating and weird", here goes: when I take off the tape, a patch of dead skin with a little ball in the center has come off with it a couple of times. The skin of the foot it left is pink and has a white little crater. I haven't seen any sign of the black root so far in these. Do I keep putting duct tape over the crater or is the wart gone with that little ball? Yeah, basic question: how do you know if the wart is gone? Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I have had a wart on the tip of my 3rd toe for more than 12 years. I have gone to many a doctor, and spent alot of money, for no results. Its like one of those flowering ones. I happened to find this blog and I was excited to read about the duct tape. I had nothing to lose so all I could find was electrical tape, and I decided to try that. Well I just took it off after a week, and boy what a difference! It is fifty percent gone. I also put finger nail polish all over it before I taped it up. So now I soaked it in epsom salt for 30 min, and put the nail polish on it again, and the tape. Will check on it in a week, so far so good. THis is all about smothering I think, and I am really smothering it with combination of nail polish and tape.. Will get back to you in a week and let you know how it is going. Good Luck

Anonymous said...

There's an alternative use of duct tape for wart removal that might help the twice a day swimmer. From
http://www.drdaveanddee.com/warts.html:
"Apply over-the-counter salicylic acid wart remover liquid to the wart before bedtime. After letting it air dry for a minute or so, apply the duct tape over the wart, completely covering the area. Remove the duct tape the following morning. Each time they remove the tape, they are debriding some of the wart tissue. Repeat the application each night, until there is no remaining wart tissue."

Anonymous said...

I started plain old silver duct tape 3 days ago on a wart that I have had for 8 years.

The wart is located in the bend under my big toe. It flowered into about 6 of them over the past 2 years....

I finally decided it was time to try the duct tape "myth".
Today I pulled out 2 little black specs and I see one erupting from beneath my skin! I can hardly believe my eyes!

My skin around it hasn't been red or irritated at all, just white and oxygen deprived like I've been swimming for days! lol...

So I'll come back in a week and let you know how my progress is!
And Oh yeah, I found this via google search! First entry. Whoo hoo for you Blogger!

Anonymous said...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-03-19-duct-tape_N.htm

Anonymous said...

I just got back from the doctor who treated me for a wart I've had for over a year. He gave me a local anesthetic and then "stabbed" at it with a needle. I was told to put duct tape on it for 3-4 weeks, no peeking.

He explained that the stab riles up the immune system, getting it to attack the wart.

BUT.... I still don't get how the duct tape works and what it does!

Jason said...

What I've read elsewhere, and I haven't saved the links to cite sources but, the duct tape causes irritation at and around the wart site. The irritation causes some sort of inflammation that alerts the immune system to the site. I suppose at this time the immune system identifies the virus infected tissue as the source of the irritation and works to destroy it. Otherwise the virus appears to in many circumstances circumvent the immune system. I have two plantar warts on the bottom of my foot- one at the heel and the other at the ball of the foot. The heel wart has been there for at least 16 to 18 years- yes that's right more than half my life. The other has been there for probably only 10. I have had laser treatment, burn out, dr cut out and dr cryotherapy (the real stuff, liquid nitrogen) to no avail. I have tried every home remedy product on the market, compound W, freeze methods, self directed cutting it. As far as acid treatments go I have found the Duane Reade brand of salycitic acid to work best although obviously did not cure me. I have been working using duct tape for about a week- when the tape comes off I replace it but I can't say that I have so far noticed any major impact on the "health" of the wart.
If you suffer from persistent warts like I have then just know I feel your pain. It is unsightly, embarrassing and sometimes painful. Not to mention expensive to try to treat. If this duct tape thing works I will be so excited I may not kick myself for not knowing about this sooner.
I won't promise I'll post back as others have done and not- but maybe I will post my progress.

Anonmyous said...

I had plantar warts on two adjacent toes a few years ago for at least several months. I used transparent adhesive tape (what would be called cello-tape, except it was a different brand) instead of duct tape. I used to open it up once a day, wash and abrade the site (making sure not to abrade so much that it bled) and then tape it back up again. In each case, about a week to 10 days was sufficient to eliminate the wart in question.

I was initially skeptical about it, so started off with only one toe. I used it on the second toe only after being successful with the first one. So, I suspect that there is a 'real' effect, not a placebo. Cos otherwise the placebo effect whatever its mechanism, would have to be discriminating enough to work on one toe while leaving the adjacent one unaffected.

kelsey said...

i just put the duct tape on the 2 warts i have on my hand after searching on google and reading various articles including this one.
im hoping it will work, i had 2 warts when i was really little and i got over the counter stuff to get rid of them, and now they're back..so i'm hoping this will make them disappear.

Anonymous said...

The HPV virus that causes warts tends to accumulate in the avascular (i.e. no blood vessel) layers of the outer epidermis and this is where it proliferates and grows. Unfortunately, since our bodies immune cells are located in the bloodstream, they cannot migrate out into the area where the virus is located because it is effectively hidden. Applying duct tape to the region causes an inflammation of the skin, which leads to a local reaction that releases the immune system mediators to dilate the blood vessels and cause the immune cells to diapedese (or move) into the area where the wart is located. Now the body is able to recognize that a foreign wart is residing in the skin and it calls for a huge immune response which ultimatly results in the death of the virus.

JGF said...

That one sounded pretty interesting. Is it published?

Jason said...

I've always heard that the black "seeds" or spots commonly found in plantar warts are dried blood cells and that the wart actually gets nourishment from the blood this way. What you said sounds good but I can verify the existence of capillaries reaching into the infected layer of wart as I've seen it on my foot.
While I'm at it I can update my progress which is to say that on one of my 2 warts I have had improvement by it shrinking. The other did not seem to be as affected. I'm continuing treatment with duct tape in cycles going on a few weeks and off a week. I'm going to start adding a some cotton soaked in apple vinegar to the top of the wart before I duct tape it. I've also heard eating alot of cabbage can help. I am determined to rid myself of these things. One word of caution, somehow the duct tape after a few weeks of application caused a deep infection around the edge of the wart on my heel. It was really very painful and I couldn't walk right for 4 days. Eventually it boiled up and it was puss filled. I drained it but I don't know what the cause of that reaction was. My suggestion is that if you get this painful reaction you stop and wait for it to subside. The wart treatment is a process.

Anonymous said...

My 6yr old son had many warts, which included two on his face which really upset him. My naturopath friend encouraged me to apply lemon oil 5 times a day to the warts and apply duct tape at night when he went to bed. I have to be honest and admit that i dint stick stringently to her advice, however around two weeks afterwards, i noticed that not only the warts thath i had applied the duct tape and lemon oil too, but ALL of his many warts were noticably shrinking, they all eventually dissapeared, they didnt "fall" off, rather they shrank back into his body. I always attributed it to the lemon oil, as this is waht my friend had said would remove the warts, but now im thinking that perhaps it was the Duct tape that had the most effect? pretty amazing stuff anyway.

Anonymous said...

My Dr. told me to try duct tape for a wart that i had on my finger. I had the thing for like two years and it was bothering me crazy! I had it on for the first four days and i already saw a decrease in size and it became softer and less painful when it came in contact with things, so within a couple of weeks the wart fell off! So i wonder what else duct tape cures!

Annette said...

Leaning that this little white bump (the size of a sesame seed) on the inside of my right thumb knuckle, I’ve have for two years was a wart - freaked me out! I’m 58 (female) and not vain, but I have hand-modeled in the past, so keeping my hands and nails attractive has been important to me. While at the doctors office last Friday, I casually mention the bump – Yep, you got a wart! I had always envisioned warts as ugly, scabby, dime size masses, kids got from playing with frogs (kidding). This was so tiny, hard and bothersome (didn’t hurt) just an area that I fiddled with endlessly. My Doctor froze the area with liquid nitrogen and told me to wrap in with duct tape and replace the tape often, as it would not stick after the hand washing. With in hours the area blister, erupting larger and larger over the weekend (but never hurt), finally it ruptured. (Sorry, gross I know) I was curious so I peeled back the dead skin and revealed the little white bump attached to the dead skin. I cut it off with sterile nail scissors and dapped the area with Neosporin® and replaced the duct tape. The area is raw and red from the freezing but it healing nicely. I’m keeping the area covered with the tape and to insure the tape stays in place, I’ve covered it with a band-aid (I get less questions from co-workers that way too), but leaving it uncovered at night. Thanks for everyone’s in-put, it’s helped me. Should have gone on-line first and just tried the tape, can’t wait to get the doctor bill.

Melanie said...

I was very apprehensive when my family physician told me to put duct tape on my wart instead of referring me to a dermotologist, but I'm so glad she did because I'm sure it saved me money!! I don't know how or why it works, and honestly I don't care...I'm just thankful it has!!

The Davii said...

Being Canadian, when I came with a huge wart on my foot which I let grow a fester in my work boots I eventually went to see a doctor. I mention being Canadian because my doctor's visits cost me nothing, but the continuous nitrogen treatment was so painful that I could no longer bear to go and see the doctor anymore. After a particularly painful episode, I told the doctor I was just going to have to live with the wart (he had gotten aggressive with the nitrogen which ended up with a huge blood blister on my foot and me unable to walk for a week). He then told me to give duct tape a try.

His reasoning, and this was about 8 years ago now, was that in his reading he had read a bunch of theories that something in pine-tar acted to kill off the warts combined with the increased heat and moisture from having the wart covered in duct tape. Pine tar is an ingredient used in the adhesive backing of duct tape of course.

Literally a loonie-sized (bigger than a quarter) wart on the bottom of my foot went away after weeks of attempting to kill it the conventional way. My doctor's advice - leave the tape on, change it only after showers and give it a day to breathe once a week. I just kept it clean and removed any dead bits as time progressed and eventually it fell out in chunks.

8 years later now we're going to try it with someone else I know, but only thing we have here (in Africa) is Gorilla Tape. Stronger than duct tape, so we'll see if it works as well and if it does, if pine-tar is present or not in the adhesive.

JGF said...

That's the first I've personally heard that pine tar was a Duct Tape ingredient. A quick Google search didn't turn up anything.

I'd mark this one down as unlikely, but who knows.

I have to say, this post does get a bit of traffic.

Anonymous said...

i have had a patch of verrucas on my right foot for the past 5 or so years, ive honestly lost track. im 16 and am hugely embarrassed of them, i even sleep with socks on so no one sees.
i have tried most home remedies on them but none have worked. i tried banana skin but that was messy and, not surprisingly, make you smell of banana. not nice. i started to use duct tape a few months ago but it just seemed to make the verrucas big and soggy like being in a bath too long. the thought that they might grow in size scared me to stop using the duct tape. :/
anyway, im going to try the clear nail varnish, if the suffocation theory is correct, this should be just as good as duct tape.
regarding the anonymous comment who was "stabbed", i have doubts about this theory, just because out of sheer annoyance and desperation over the years i have stabbed/cut/picked at my verrucas a few times. grrr.

Anonymous said...

Just starting my duct tape today....i've had a pencil eraser sized wart on the bottom of my foot for the past two years and I always meant to try duct tape. This thread has convinced me to do it!

Anonymous said...

If pine tar is in wood varnish as well as duct tape, I'm convinced that's the effective ingredient. As a child, I had a pencil-eraser-diameter wart on a knuckle for several years. It looked like a little cauliflower. It hurt when bumped, which was often, given its location. I unintentionally got furniture varnish on my hands during a woodworking project one afternoon. The very next morning, the wart was drastically flatter, smaller, and less painful. The varnish wore off over a couple of days, and the wart was entirely gone in perhaps a week.

Anonymous said...

A few weeks ago I developed a painful wart on the side of my third toe. I believe it is from dancing at prom with my shoes off. eh. I kinda left it lone for awhile thinking that it would go away on it's own. Wrong. I tried the wart bandages from CVS with the acid but all that did was fry the skin around the wart. I've tried duct tape and every time I replace it, the wart looks a little smaller. Each time, I use a nail file (same one everytime, not for nails anymore) and file of a layer of dead stuff. It seems to be working! Its a little slow though and Im thinking of trying nail polish as well.

Anonymous said...

My 8 year old son is an avid hockey player and he had a huge wart on his big toe. Because he didn't want to stop playing hockey for several weeks after a "lazer treatment", we decided to try the duct tape option. We were amazed at how well it worked (we used a little compound W, too!!) After about two or three weeks, the wart(s) just fell off...My other son is next...

Anonymous said...

After reading all of these success stories, I finally decided to give this a try. I am only on my second day of treatment, but am determined to continue until the wart is gone, gone, GONE. I hate the wart, it is so unsightly (right on my knee) . . . :( So I sure hope that this works -- Wish me luck!

あじ said...

I'm 30, and the duct tape method has worked great for me on several occasions when freezing does not. So far everyone I've suggested it to experienced similar results (I use the gray stuff). I think this method should be the first resort for most people because it's cheap and relatively painless (except when picking out dead skin).

Unknown said...

I might as well chime in too. I had this weird mysterious "thing" on my foot several years ago that I thought was a corn at first. But I've had corns in the past and this just didn't look anything like it. After much research, I concluded that it must have been a plantar's wart. Nothing as severe as all the images on the web (seriously...GROSS. How could anyone allow warts to get so out of control?), but still irritating.

Anywaym, I read about this duct tape method and like many others, was just like "Huh?" But I liked the cheapness and practicality of such a thing and gave it a shot. I can't recall how LONG I treated it for, but I'm certain it was over the course of maybe a month or two. I followed it exactly as one of the websites said. Leaving it on, taking it off to file off dead skin, and replacing it all over again.

Initially, the area looks even worse cuz it turns all white and weird looking, but it's all part of the process. I'm still amazed that something as simple as duct tape was what worked for that annoying little bump. It has never returned after that. Now I'm trying to suggest the same thing to my sister who has a mysterious growth on her foot as well, but she's thinking it's a pretty weird method. Oh well!

Anonymous said...

Hi!
I have been putting duct tape on a couple of warts on the heel of my foot for a few months, only about 3 days a week. I wear sandals in the summer, and dont like having it on my foot when I go out. How much do I need to be putting on and how often? I have been putting it all the way across the bottom of my foot because It tends to fall off during the day otherwise. What else does duct tape work on?

sharaabi said...

I have a subungual wart on my right thumb right now which is partly (almost half) exposed at the tip of the nail. I am trying the duct tape treatment for 2 days now lets see... might not work since i dont have the entire wart covered by it..

anyway, so we are all wondering how the duct tape works on warts. what about how we discovered it? Did some random clueless chump get a wart and had no idea what it was and didn't have bandage so put the closest thing he had to a bandage - duct tape - on the wart? And since most people say it takes at least a few days if not a few weeks for the wart to go, did this guy keep the duct tape on for days without trying to hook himself up with a bandage? but was smart enough to make sure that the world knew...

karab819 said...

So for all of you who have tried duct tape how many have had the unsightly thing return? I have tried just about every over the counter product they sell and it seems to come back each and every time. I went to my doctor and she froze them and instructed me to use duct tape or moleskin (for blisters) for 7 days then let it breath for 1 night and reapply. I have to go back to have it frozen in a month. So like I said I was wondering how successful this has been for everyone? Did it come back at all? :) Thanks!

Unknown said...

Hi there,

I have been suffering from warts all my life and have not bothered too much with them until about 3 years ago...I got one on my FACE!!

I tried the apple cider vinegar cure but that was really painful and made the wart scab. Just recently I managed to find duct-tape (I live in Italy) and have been putting a little patch on the wart when I go to bed at night. After a couple of days I could see that the wart has shrunk!

I'm going to be more diligent and keep the duct-tape on whenever I can. I do promise to come back and let you know if I have any developments.

My only fear is that there might be side-effects. Does anyone know of any?

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I too have warts on my fingers, they are unsightly and quite often am disgusted to think i have a virus...although i know every one has HPV in some form. Anyway I googled ways to get rid of warts and most ways are to freeze them...now i have had them for many years and have tried everything from banana peel to potato peel, mince (premium mince rubbed on it and planted in the ground as it rots so does the wart) it kind of worked but i think birds got the mince. and since i am breastfreeding (tmi i know) i cant use the freezing method which doesnt work anyway i decided to try the duct tape, i am 3 days in and it has already shrank, i'll try to keep posting my progress. so far so good

Anonymous said...

IT WORKS IT WORKS IT WORKS

I had a very large cluster of warts on my right big toe for about 5 years. It started out as a cluster of 4 or so any eventually grew to about 30 or so.

Previous to trying duct-tape, I had tried Salicylic acid, and cryotherapy.

I even had tried duct tape before, for about 3 weeks and not as diligently as I should have. The first time it didn't work, but the second time it very much worked. Here is what I did:

I duct-taped my toe completely (I have sweaty feet and smaller amounts of tape would slide off)
and would leave the tape on from monday to sunday morning. I would leave it on even when working out, showering etc.
On the sunday I would take a pumice stone and scrape the dead skin off of the toe, of which there was quite a bit.

on the 5th or 6th week (can't remember which) I took the tape off and started to scrape the skin off with the pumice stone, and noticed my toe was REALLY sensitive, tickelish. When I put my glasses on to look at my toe, I noticed the warts were gone... just 'disappeared' kind of way... it really was that dramatic... that was about a month ago and they haven't come back since...

Definitely try this method, it worked for me, was convenient, and very very cheap!

Anonymous said...

Duct tape supposedly works by causing an "irritation" on the skin, which kicks in the immune system. This in turn, knocks out the virus.

Anonymous said...

I have had several warts in the past couple years and they usually show up on my fingers. I've had pretty much every removal process done(like i said I've had many over the years) and the duct tape one definitely works the best. (and its the least painful!) For those who think people give you crazy looks try the different colors of duct tape. The Duck Tape brand makes all kinds of colors, teal, hot pink, bright orange, plaid. They end up looking just like a bandaid.

Unknown said...

Well, I guess ill try this on my little old freind who lives on the back of my hand, I've had it since I was like 5, I've tried all the treatments, and well I guess I've just, givin' up accepted it although, I guess I can part with it cause it's been getting a little weird, the skin around it looks to be getting rougher.

The only thing is, I need some duct tape.

Unknown said...

I am in the process of using this method right now on about a quarter-sized plantars wart on the ball of my foot - my mother's dermatologist advised me of using duct tape/Compound W if I didn't want to have it cut out again (as I did about 2 years ago...and of course it came back).

Another important thing she noted was that I had to disinfect my shower with Clorox so as not to let the fungus and virus continue to grow. Also, she told me to put a small amount of lysol on a paper towel and clean the sole of my shoes that I've worn to work, etc. without socks. I wear heels and flip flops all the time with the bottom of my foot directly touching my shower and shoes. Worse, I'm a dancer...

Be sure to disinfect anything the wart touches on a regular basis (for your hands - laptop mouses, regular mouses, cell phones, etc.) :) It's a viral fungus and will spread if you don't clean your stuff.

Anonymous said...

ive had the same wart for about seven years now on my right hand ring finger at the second joint. Ive tried duct tape, cutting it off, nail polish, i even went to the doctors for Liquid nitrogen. Which seemed to work, the blister came up under the wart and removed it with the typical crater. it healed and i thought that was it, but no it came back in like a month.

Ive never really been that committed about getting rid of it before but today in health class I saw the nastier strains of HPV and that just kinda freaked me out a bit.

So I went a little overboard today and attacked the wart about five times with the liquid nitrogen kit, tomorrow I'm going to start with the corresponding liquid wart remover (Dr Scholl's dual(freezing and liquid) action wart remover) and duct tape. I hope to be rid of it in a month or sooner and I'll post back when/ if it goes away.

the success stories here have encouraged me to try again, thanks!

~Mark

Anonymous said...

I'm just trying this on a wart on my wrist scar, hope it works. I got rid of another one in an odd way years ago though. I had one on my inner ankle forever, and happened to get a compound fracture in my tibea at that spot one day. After the surgery scar healed up, one day the scab peeled off, and out came the whole wart with the scab, it had a perfect white root, about 1/4 inch long. I was so happy, but what a way to get rid of it!

Anonymous said...

The wart needs to breathe and the duct tape stops it from breathing. It's that simply folks. I got rid of a wart when I was a kid by cutting the top and applying liquid white out for about two weeks and it's never come back.

Anonymous said...

The reason warts don't go away is because your immune system ignores it/doesn't recognize it. This is why meditation and focusing on the wart during meditation will make it fall off (the focusing during meditation focuses your t cells or white bloods cell or whatever it is to the wart's location.) Because of this I believe that something in the adhesive of the tape causes enough irritation on the skin to attract your body's defensive cells to that location and end up attacking the virus of the wart. Just a theory.

Michael said...

I started the duct tape method three days ago after having the dr. freeze the wart. My wart is located on the bottom of my right big toe. I have changed the tape a few times after taking a shower. The wart is white and looks like it is suffocating.

Hopefully this method work out. All the post are encouraging and keep me very optimistic.

Ztug said...

Hi All,
I have had warts come and go since I was 5. I bit some off as a kid, picked some to death, used wart remover on some and had the Dr. freeze some. I found that the best reatment, if in a not too sensative place, was to use dry ice. Using insulated gloves, hold it against the wart. Try to use a chip with a point so as to not freeze much of the surronding area. Hold it there till the wart is frozen rock hard. I believe that this works better, usually 1 treatment, than liquid nitrogen, is that even thought dry ice may not be quite as cold as the liquid form, it freezes deeper and gets the roots ( blood supply) of the wart better.

I know have one on the thin skin just below my lower eye lid and am affraid to use this method. So I'm trying duct tape. After just a couple of days the wart has shrunken quite a bit. It has the typical apearence of water logged skin, like under a banage after spending time in a pool. A little red irritation but not painful. It looks like it may just work.

May be a combination of several of the factors that people have mentioned.
I don't believe in Hypnotism or the Placeabo effect, People have tried to put me under with out success, and no I wasn't fighting it. I don't think all the sugar pills in the world are going to make a wart go away.
I would lean toward the temperature increase, the initiation of an immune response that the wart it's self doesn't natually do, oxygen deprevation or even a reaction to a chemical in the glue or a combination as the way it functions. I'll post another success story (hopefully) in a few weeks.

Anonymous said...

My husband was in the Swedish army 20 years ago and they used duct tape for warts! I wonder if just get too stuck on "medicine" being the only way to solve what ails us? There must be other ways to get the body to respond/react and be cured?

Anonymous said...

I have had a subungual wart for over five years now and like everyone else have tried everything. I have frozen if off countless times and the amount of acid I have used I am surprised I still have a thumb left. In recent weeks I have heard about the duct tape theory so am finally trying it. I have just put it on ( I have a bright silver thumb) but it's worth it if I finally get rid of the thing.

Anonymous said...

If it's all about smothering the wart and depriving it from oxygen...what about putting a dab of super glue over it? I've worked with super glue a lot over the years and sometimes I get it on the tips of my fingers and it seals shut the gap under my finger nails. I bet you could create a seal over the wart. Plus, it's clear so you can avoid people asking you why you have duct tape on you :)

Anonymous said...

My doctor says the duct tape triggers the body's immune system and that's why it works.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know if this would work with chalazions on the eyelids? I don't know if those are related to warts.

Meredith

JGF said...

Yikes. Chalazions are not warts.

Google is your friend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalazion

Duct tape doesn't cure everything. Don't duct tape your lids.

Even on plantar warts any effect could be placebo/suggestion/illusion. Warts are funny things.

Unknown said...

I heard about this and tried it on my daughter - and it worked, all of her warts are gone. In treating my daughter, I developed a wart on my thumb - a week of duct tape killed it. No adverse effects to our skin at all.

I read that it starves the wart of outside sources of oxygen, and causes the blood vessels to grow into the wart, which gives the body's immune system the chance to attack and kill it.

Anonymous said...

I cant say anything about duck tape however.... Just last night my Brother whom sufferd with warts severly most of his life, told me he had the cure for the one that I aquired on my leg that had grown to the size of a pencil eraser. I didnt let it bother me until it made Shaving around it difficult. He told me to get a #2 pencil and a lighter. After heating the Super Sharp pencil for about a minute er two he (while still hot) Stabbed the wart dead center. Honestly I didnt belive this would work but considering I dont have insurance I thought what the heck worse case it doesnt work no harm no foul. Folks on everything I love... Literally within Minutes.. thats right miuntes!! It fell right off!!! No Pain n just a small red spot where it was. To which he said would be all gone in a few days.Ive had this thing for two years and nothing has worked NOT Anything. So to conclude if ur not sqeemish and want results NOW! Verses weeks and months. This method is AMAZING!! I would recomend it to everyone!!

Anonymous said...

I just started the duct tape therapy on my 5 year old daughter's foot. We went to Target and I let her pick out her duct tape color - of course she picked out hot pink!!

Her pediatrician also suggested putting an uncoated baby aspirin under the duct tape on top of the wart. Some of the research I did on the web mentioned salicylic acid which is very similar to the active ingredient in aspirin right? Can't hurt...I will let you know.

Anon said...

Ok so I read a lot of articles on the net and all and have decided to do it too.

The only thing I'm confused about is how I'm supposed to keep duct tape on it for 6 days while showering?

And also, the tape doesn't seem to stick to my warts too well...I've put skin colored tape on top of the duct tape, but I hope it's not the direct sticking that cures them because it seems like it's touching but being held there more by the skin colored tape than the duct tape.

Sonikh said...

After a couple of years with growing out-of-control plantar warts on my big and second toes, my wife set an appointment with a doctor. BIG MISTAKE!!! He gave me a prescription for stomach ulcers that apparently helps with warts and also applied and acid that left me in a miserable state for 3 days in a row and with blisters for over a week! The side effects of the prescription were not good either. I stopped the prescription and changed doctors. This new one, applied a different type of acid and was supposed to see her every two weeks. After 6 weeks of making it worse (where I had blisters now I had painful mosaic warts!) and dealing with 3 days in a row of hardly being able to walk, I decided to do a thorough research on the web and avoid the pain, too!
Even my health insurance website suggest the use of duct tape! so I decided to give it a try.
It's been 3 weeks now and the results are unbelievable. The smaller mosaics are basically gone, and the largest one (used to be about 1x2 in in size) is starting to look much better).
My technique is this: After soaking for 15 minutes in 12oz of water with Epsom salts, two drops of vitamin A (10,000 UI) and two drops of concentrated grapefruit seed extract (i.e. Agrisept or Citricidal)
I then use a pumice stone to remove the excess skin on top of the warts. Avoid doing it too hard that leaves the skin too sensitive and avoid bleeding!!! Let dry and apply tea tree oil. Leave it uncovered overnight. The next day, the skin is rough and the duct tape will stick very well to the warts.
To shower, I use "finger gloves" those used in the kitchen (watch out if you are sensitive to latex). Wear it on the respective toes (which keeps them quite dry, particularly the big toe). In this way you can wash the rest of the foot without getting your toes wet.
To help my immune system combat the virus and renew the skin, I followed some nurse's instructions on a website about taking 25,000IU of Vitamin A for 10 days (in 3 doses). I also as per my physician's recommendation increased my vitamin D3 intake to 7,000 IU a day. This also helps your immune system overall.
Many people forget that homeopathy works! So I also got Thuja Forte and dissolve one tablet under the tongue three times a day, I will be doing this for 3 months as per another website.
Since I started doing this, I am seeing positive results every week I use the pumice stone, I don't have pain, and can continue to exercise and walk regularly.

The two words in my mind right now: Patience and Perseverance.

sonikh said...

My technique is this: After soaking for 15 minutes in 12oz of water with Epsom salts, two drops of vitamin A (10,000 UI) and two drops of concentrated grapefruit seed extract (i.e. Agrisept or Citricidal)
I then use a pumice stone to remove the excess skin on top of the warts. Avoid doing it too hard that leaves the skin too sensitive and avoid bleeding!!! Let dry and apply tea tree oil. Leave it uncovered overnight. The next day, the skin is rough and the duct tape will stick very well to the warts. Then leave covered for 6 days and repeat.
To shower, I use "finger gloves" those used in the kitchen (watch out if you are sensitive to latex). Wear it on the respective toes (which keeps them quite dry, particularly the big toe). In this way you can wash the rest of the foot without getting your toes wet.
To help my immune system combat the virus and renew the skin, I followed some nurse's instructions on a website about taking 25,000IU of Vitamin A for 10 days (in 3 doses). I also as per my physician's recommendation increased my vitamin D3 intake to 7,000 IU a day. This also helps your immune system overall.
Many people forget that homeopathy works! So I also got Thuja Forte and dissolve one tablet under the tongue three times a day, I will be doing this for 3 months as per another website.
Since I started doing this, I am seeing positive results every week I use the pumice stone, I don't have pain, and can continue to exercise and walk regularly.

The two words in my mind right now: Patience and Perseverance.

Unknown said...

I used duct tape on a large cluster of warts on my heel a couple of years ago. It worked perfectly - took about 2-3 weeks and the area has remained clear ever since. I'm now trying it again on a smaller cluster of verrucas on the ball of my left foot, most of which seem to penetrate the skin pretty deeply. I've tried freezing several times with no success. Have been going for just under a week with the tape and so far it looks promising. The skin around the verrucas is white and dead-looking and there is a slight burning sensation. I would definitely recommend duct tape over freezing which is painful and much more invasive and, in my experience, doesn't work anyway.

Anonymous said...

I believe in the body's ability to heal itself, given the chance. So after reading many interesting comments on the "duct tape" theory, I decided to give it a try.

For many years, I've had a wart on the inside of my right thumb -- started as a teenager. Until recently, it was just an annoyance and then became a nasty habit of picking at it. I've tried all the "modern" remedies, including the cryo path, to no avail.

Now, the wart is much larger in size -- they seem to have teamed up! Tonight, I'll start the DTR (duct tape remedy) and I'll keep you posted.

Many prayers to all of you suffering with plantar warts -- I know they are the most difficult to remove and the most painful.

Soon-to-be-wart-free(hopefully) in Florida...

Anonymous said...

I heard of this some years ago but only recently needed to use it. I had a pesky little wart on the back of my hand. I put duct tape on it, pretty much forgot about it for about a week. Then decided to take a peek. I was told that it works because of two things. I don't remember exactly what it is but there is a chemical in duct tape that helps destroy the wart. The other has been mentioned and that is mind over matter. Just as we bite our tongue or lip we remind the brain we need repairs and it's done. Or a papercut for instance. Whatever works right?

Angelina said...

After reading this great page I am trying this too on a wart I have had on my finger for years plus 3 or so others on my feet.

I have tried expensive and uncomfortable cryotherapy which did absolutely nothing but possibly make the ones on my feet get bigger (!) and painting them with acid daily but that doesn't seem to do much as they seem to recover faster than the acid eats it. Someone told me to pee on them but I'd rather try this!

For the past 5 or so days I have covered them with duct tape but how are you guys keeping the duct tape on? Mine falls off all the time and I constantly have to replace it so that it sticks.

But I am pleased because when they fall off I can see the skin on the top of the wart is really white already like I have been swimming and it flakes off easily. I really hope this continues for the whole wart!!! It seems to be making the one on my finger smaller. Also they itch like hell for the first time which seems like a good thing. I've started to put a bit of acid on before covering them with tape cause I want to come at it from all directions! I really can't wait to get rid of these suckers. They're so embarrassing.

Anonymous said...

I have been trying this method out and I can say that I noticed there seems to be more "progress" on the elimination of the wart on my foot when the duct tape is left in place for as long as possible. It seems the rankier the area around the wart gets (smell included) the yellower, darker and generally smaller the wart is when the tape eventually needs to be replaced. When I was frequently replacing and cleaning the taped area the wart seemed far less affected by the treatment. Let it get nasty! I presume that it makes worse conditions for the wart to thrive in.
Use enough tape to cover the entire area plus some, as it is possible for the virus to extend beyond the visible areas.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for this website. Like many others, I had warts all over my hands and some on my feet when I was a child off and on into my 20's. My doctors tried freezing them, and even putting a stick of novacaine into the bottom of my foot to cut it out (which I do not recommend). I noticed if I saw one starting, I could cut it off my hands before it had time to take root and this would sometimes work. I'm 42 now, and thought I was immune to warts at this point in my life, but unfortunately after experiencing some consistent stress in my life, they started popping up all over my hands. I also have had a planters wart on my right foot for a few years now, which I'm sure contributed with the virus.

My 14 year old son also has a few warts on his left elbow.

So we both started using the duct tape on Sat, so this is my 3rd day. Keep in mind I've only had them on my hands for about 2 weeks, and after trying to cut them off didn't work, I tried the old silver duct tape. Sure enough, I'm already seeing results. The ones that had barely taken root seems to be almost gone, and the others are getting smaller as well.

However, tomorrw I have to go back to work, and given I work in a crowded office building with rows and rows of cubes, I'm undecided if I will leave the duct tape on. I may try super glew and a couple of band aids while I'm at work. Otherwise I would have 9 pieces of silver duct tape on my hands.

I'm also taking some vitamins to help my immune system, and I will exercise today as well, which I should be doing anyway.

Please keep this site going if you can because it's been great to read all of the comments.

BTW - my personal opinion after reading the posts is the duct tape works for a few reasons... 1) it's a living virus, so the tape confines it vs. letting it spread 2) lack of oxygen and the firmness of the tap prevents it from growing, plus it probably causes the wart distress because it can't grow and be healthy 3) #1 and #2 help notify the body that the virus is there thus letting your immune system at it. I think there's a chance that if your immune system is weak though, due to stress or illness, you may need to add the vitamins and exercise as others have stated.

I will hopefully post an update in a few weeks, as I wish more people would have posted their results here. Thank you

- RB

Dee said...

I have tried this method before and have had some results. I must admit I went to the doctor anyway last year having no patience and wanting the wart on my leg removed because I was cutting it anyway everytime I shaved my legs. After a few painful injections of numbing, he took a small object much like an apple corer and well yes thats basically how he got it out... I was left with an even worse scar. And after it healed the blasted wart came back also! Arrg! Granted it was a bit smaller... I'm now taking the time to try the duct tape again. I am convinced and determinded it will work!
My daughter also has one on her shoulder she is 4 and since she doesn't like the idea of duct tape being on her arm I coaxed her by allowing her to pick out her own favorite cartoon caracter band aids to apply over top of the duct tape wich we will be changing quite often I'm sure! I haven't tried rubbing them with a file or pumice stone after changing out the duct tape, so I'm curious to see how this will speed things up. However as I said before I do believe this will work it just takes time and patience. My mother my grandmother my sisters and my mother in law have all used this method. So good luck to all. And please try this first before going to the doctor!

scriapinov said...

Hi! I've had a few clusters on two toes on my right foot for quite a few years, and I'm also getting a few nasty ones on my fingers, and it's so depressing when you try when treatment doesn't work! I've tried the freezing (which was a disaster when I got a huge blister and couldn't play piano for a good month!) and the salactol acid but really I've never been a huge fan of the idea that putting some magic juice on it will somehow just make it dissappear. (maybe that's why it's never worked...) But I must say I'm very encouraged for the first time ever about what people have said about the tape. I'm quite confidant that it could do some good so I'll try it in earnest. And I will be back! My only concern is that they might well come back. And also wouldn't they leave a huge crater? How long does that take to heal?

Dr. Buddy said...

Okay - I've got it. Here's how and why duct tape works.

Go to bandaid.com, click "fun for kids," then click "test your knowledge." On question #1 you'll learn that "bandages that...maintain an important natural moisture balance are ideal for healing. Skin cells are able to migrate easily - without drying out and developing into a scab - to help form new, smooth tissue sooner." Also, on question #4, the answer to: "Scabs impede the healing process and make it more likely to cause scarring," is TRUE.

So, what does this have to do with warts?

Read over all the blogs above. They'll tell you that 1) The immune system cannot effectively travel across the surface of the skin. 2) Blood must be present for healing to occur. 3) There ARE capillaries in warts that allow blood to feed them. 4) Wearing duct tape "makes the skin look weird, wet and wrinkled, like you've been swimming."

Add all of that together and voila! The reason duct tape works is: Moisture that duct tape holds on the surface of your skin allows the capillaries in your warts to bring the immune system to the skin's surface where it can then migrate healthy skin cells across the affected area and overwhelm the wart!

They tell you to leave the duct tape on for days on end - no peeking. The longer you leave it, the wetter and weirder it gets - like the tissue UNDER your skin.

It's not the duct tape that heals you - it's your own immune system being allowed to work!

Now you know.

Anonymous said...

I went crazy on my plantar wart today after 2 years of trying wart remover pads and 2 sessions of cryotherapy. Nothing has worked.

I froze the crap out of it with Dr. Scholl's freeze away with 2 applications, 1 minute long each (almost 3x the recommended amount), then put a wart remover disc on it (40% salicylic acid), then covered it up with duct tape. Anyone heard of all of these methods used in conjunction working?

Anonymous said...

I have had a wart on my right ring finger for about 3 years now. I have tried freezing it many times and covered it in extra strength salicylic acid. Nothing seemed to remove it permanently. The last time I burned it off with the acid and hacked it to pieces... Lots of blood but it seemed to go away. However, it came back within a couple of weeks.

Anyhoo, I have decided to give the duct tape method a try. I have had the tape on my finger since Saturday and the wart has almost totally gone! It was about half a centimeter across and a couple millimeters high. Now all that is left is the footprint of the wart. Most of it has gone. I am impressed. I am going to leave the tape on for another couple of weeks and see what happens.

Alan

Anonymous said...

Well, one week later my wart it totally gone! I am amazed!

Alan

Anonymous said...

I've had warts on my fingers for over two years, they started with one on a finger then gradually spread over nine of my fingers and thumbs. I tried the usual methods from the chemist but with know success. I did try duct tape but didn't read the instructions properly and I was unconvinced it would work, with this negativety I gave up. I ended up sending off for two lots of very expensive wart remover from America spending over £100 but still there was no sign of the warts disappearing. One of the warts on my left hand started to spread around my finger, it became very painful, at this point I was getting rather desperate and read all the advice on this web page. I realised that I didn't give the duct tape a fair chance so decided to give it another go. At first I decided to put it on over night, this didn't seem to work. I then put the duct tape on all the time for a two week period. I put badges over the duct tape when I went out, I had lots of comments saying "have you hurt yourself" I just replied "gardening". The warts became very soft and white and shrunk in size. The smaller ones virally disappeared, I continued to reapply the tape for another two to three weeks. This period very difficult trying to cook and use my hands for differents things started to annoy me but seeing the warts shrink made me continue. I took the duct tape off and filed the warts ensuring to not cross contaminate. After a week of filing the warts all disappeared. I can't tell you how pleased I am. I just want to thank everyone for writing there experiences on this site, it really helped. I am now trying to help my nieces with their warts.

Anonymous said...

I once had a wart on my let foots toe, but I was on vacation and couldn't go to my usual doctor,so I smothered it with nude colored bandades until I could go back home, and when I took off the bandade, the wart had a white layer of dead skin over the top of it. I, being an impatient person, peeled it back, and everything feel out of it, leaving a giant crater in my toe. I put on new bandades until my crater was gone, an they have never returned again. Hence, I always assumed that it was suffocation that killed them, although I think that all of the comments definately could be true as well. Right now I have a plantar wart below my toes on my R foot, and two on my left hand. I'm trying the duct tape method after getting them frozen a little bit. I hope it works quickly, though-- I'm going on vacation soon! Wish me luck,
Anonymous

Toronto said...

I'm really looking forward to giving this duct tape method a try! I will post my results if something happens!

- Toronto

Anonymous said...

FYI regarding plantar warts, I had discovered a potential reason why so many years and methods of treatments failed. It is that where you ultimately see the outer appearance of it does not mean that's all there is. It can spread across, under the skin, before becoming emergent. So just treating what you see may not be treating it all.

Be sure to sufficiently cover the areas surrounding the wart with the tape. In a few days or up to 2 weeks you'll begin to notice other 'sites' you may not have known were there. With good fortune, you can finally knock that sucker out. I'm still working on mine :/

Molly said...

I first got a plantar's wart on the ball of my foot. It was small and didn't bother me so I let it go. That was a few years ago! It has only gotten a little bigger but has multiplied into 3 plantars warts now. They each have small black dots in them. The first one having quite a lot and being pretty ugly! So I finally decided to try to get rid of them. I tried Compound W and it didn't work. I had heard of duct tape before but it sounded ridiculous. But I was getting desperate and decided to research it again. I found this blog. After reading so many success stories using duct tape I decided to give it a try. And I am so glad I did! I started doing it almost a month ago. I would put one piece of duct tape over all of the warts. I would leave it on as long as I could until it would start to come off. Then I would just put a new piece on. I go to the pool a lot and obviously didn't want everyone to see duct tape on my feet so I would put clear nail polish over it those few hours. After only a few days the area over the wart got white. Eventually the black spots would get closer to the surface. Every once in awhile I would file it down with a pumice stone or clip away dead skin with clippers. Now almost a month later it is looking SO much better. There are only a couple of the black spots in the biggest wart and it is not as risen as before! I am going to keep doing this until they are completely gone! I will post again when that happens! Duct tape really DOES work for anything!

Anonymous said...

CraZy this thread is 4yrs old and still going,lol! But Use Gorilla tape other than regular silver duct tape,its the best and it wont fall off all the time! Good luCk!

Anonymous said...

I tried this and so far it seems to be working very well. It is very weird and I think interesting. The duct tape seems to make the warts mushy and soft while keeping the skin still firm and pretty regular. I have two warts that are a little bit apart from each other but I cover them with only one piece of duck tape and the skin in between isn't mushy like the warts. I just took my duck tape after it stayed on for like 3 days without falling off (which is unusual) and it smells terrible but you can't even tell when the tape is on, if anything I think of that as a positive sign... I assume the dead skin was just startting to stink. Also a thing I do is while its mushy I go at it with a finger nail clipper. Pain free and you take some big chucks off there. Also tweezers to pick out the black specks (roots).

Nice Job on the article,
Kevin

Anonymous said...

I have two warts on my right hand - the first under my middle fingernail and the second between my middle finger and ring finger. I have gone to the doctor about three times to get them frozen off - and also used Dr. Scholl's wart remover about five times. Nothing.

Not to mention, it's probably underneath my fingernail now, and so the option might be to cut off the fingernail and get the root of it. Ouch, indeed.

So I've had the duct tape on for about 24 hours now, and already my fingernail is tender and hurting, and I can feel a throbbing underneath my nail. I'm taking that as a good sign that the immune response has begun.

Because of the location of both warts, I had to completely cover the top of my middle finger and wrap the tape around the base of my finger. The duct tape started to irritate my non-warty fingernail and so I put some cotton over the nail and nailed that did not contain the wart.

The base fingernail duct tape came off last night, so that one isn't as tender, but I did see a piece of it come off with the last application.

I'll post back and let everyone know if it works for me!

Anonymous said...

I have a 9 year old son who had 3 warts on his left hand (two on his ring finger and one on his palm). He had them for about 2 years and we tried freezing them off as well as treating them with "beetle juice" from the pediatricians office. He said "Mom let's just cut my finger off" (rather than do the freezing again). We found this blog and decided to give it a try, encouraged by all the response. IT WORKED! It took about 5 weeks. At first we wrapped each wart on his finger with duct tape and followed the instructions at the top of the blog. After a couple of weeks his fingers were really red, smelly, and soggy, so I had the idea to cut a small square of duct tape to cover the wart and keep it on with a bandaid because bandaids have little holes for your skin to breathe. After 6 days we soaked and filed, gave a night off and did it again for another 6 days. At first they turned white, and not much would file off. After a few weeks they started cracking and shrinking. Now they are completely gone and the amazing thing is, the one on his palm (which we did not tape) is gone too! INCREDIBLE!

Anonymous said...

Used electical tape on a series of warts I had on my shin for 5+ years. After two weeks - they are gone.

Anonymous said...

Well, I went to the doctor whom referred me to an eye specialist, since I have these bumps (1 on each eyelid) on my eyelids. Apparently it's some kind of wart. It's gonna cost me allot of money to have them removed, since according to the specialist they need to be surgically removed. I have now put on duct tape on my eyelids. I look silly, but if it's gonna work, then so be it ...

Angela said...

I am 42 years old and have my first plantar's wart (please, hold your applause!) It started out like a small knot on my heel and since I had never had a wart, I didn't know what the knot was until I researched it on Google. I used the freezing method three times within 2 weeks, and it only continued to hurt worse! In desperation, I researched some more and found several websites with information about the duct tape method. I have been out of work for a year and a half and have no insurance, so seeing a podiatrist isn't an option. I figured it couldn't hurt to try. I started the duct tape treatment about six days ago and the center of the wart is much deeper and more pronounced, and obviously is started to shrink. The old adage is true.....you really CAN fix anything with duct tape. :)

Anonymous said...

When i was 14, 5 years ago, i acquired a wart on my thumb. I had tried acid treatments, freezing it off and burning it off with no luck. I decided to try acid treatments again about 2 weeks ago. Having nasty white crust from the acid is super embarrassing, so I bought some 3 dollar “waterproof medical tape” to cover the wart while it has the acid on it. The acid started to burn very badly after a week of using it, so I stopped treatment. Well, I had read about duct tape treatment and figured since I had a roll of medical tape I may as well try it. I have been keeping the wart covered ALL DAY for about a week now, and the wart is about 75% smaller already. I feel this may be the cure.

Anonymous said...

I had a nurse practitioner recommend a crushed aspirin/water paste covered with duct tape for a wart without black roots on my thumb. She said the aspirin contains the same ingredient that the OTC wart treatments do. She said to use duct tape because it doesn't breathe. It's working but the wart is fighting back with a 2nd wart starting on the opposite side of my thumb. This one does have a black root. I did a web search to see if it worked for one with a root. Seems as if it does from this blog and the many comments. I'll give it a go.

Anonymous said...

The NP also told me to apply this each night before bed and take off in the morning. That should keep it from getting nasty like some of the comments have said. It will likely take longer that way though.

Anonymous said...

It really works. I have 2 bean size wart on my left foot. Covered with duct tape. 1st one fell off in 4 days, 2nd one feel off in 14 days... Thanks amazing duct tape..

keeper said...

I had a wart 18 years ago that was removed with liquid nitrogen and never came back.

I now have a wart that survived OTC cryotherapy. I froze the wart for 30 seconds approximately 16 times, pulled it off 3 times and it keeps coming back.

With the duct tape on consistently now for 3 days i can see the wart shrinking and almost dissolving.

The wart split open spontaneously for some reason which prompted me to cover it with whatever i had on hand and i heard duct tape was supposed to work, so i tried it. i will post again in 3 days and 9 days to report if it works.

Anonymous said...

K, so I've had a wart on my right index finger for nearly two years...I've tried the Dr Scholl's freezing kits, cutting...I even tried lacquer thinner, as somebody told me that was a good fix...
About a week ago, I was in Ohio for a wedding I was taking part in. Simply to hide the eye sore, I grabbed some Band Aids, which I wore...figured it'd be better to feign a cut than wave the wart around in people's faces...
I've worn a Band Aid on it about every other day{if that} for a week, and it's half the size it was originally, and appears to still be shrinking. No inflammation, no redness or the like... That's how I found this post. I Googled: wart, oxygen, and this thread was at the top.
Now I'm off to go buy more Band Aids, and some duct tape for one on my foot...

Anonymous said...

I went to the DR 2 times to have it froze from the top of my foot, didn't work and wanted to try some thing different. Tried the Dr Scholl's clear away. That did not work and was making my foot sore. Google about plantar warts and read about the duct tape. Thought is was weird so I googled, does duct tape remove warts and found your site. After reading all the comments I thought it could not hurt. Put the duct tape to the bottom of my foot but did not seem to stick. I layered the tape 2 times. Then I thought what the heck to keep that baby on I wrapped the tape around my whole foot. I am going to keep it on longer than 6 days. I will post my results. Thanks for your blog.

Anonymous said...

Duct tape worked for me! Had a big plantar wart on my foot for about 3 years. My sister-n law told me about this and thought I'd try it. Everynight before going to bed, I used a pumice stone to "sand" my wart, then put some over the counter wart medication on (like Duofilm) then stuck a piece of duct tape on. I changed the duck tape everyday. Wart was completely healed in a little over a month. It was amazing. I never had to go to the doctor and get it cut off or frozen off! It really worked for me!

ixnée said...

Though wouldn't that statement imply that someone at one point had actually been completely wrapped in duct tape for an extended period of time? Seems highly unlikely to me, but it is a crazy world out there.

Anonymous said...

Never thought I would post on a wart blog but here it goes. Have had a wart in the nook between my big toe and foot pad. Had warts before and after a few treatments of compound W they go away. Well this one is stubborn and for the past 8 weeks I have been applying compound W 2X a day and have been going to the podiatrist every week to have him "shave" it down. Well it looked like it was getting smaller then suddenly it seemed to be getting bigger again. I got so frustrated! Doc is on vacation for 3 weeks so I decided to play while the doc is away. Tried the banana peel didn't work. Scoured the internet and found this blog. Have duct tape on my wart now and am very excited !! Will keep you posted.

John Gordon said...

It's not supposed to be a 'wart blog', it's just that this one post has about 100 times as many comments as any other post.

Clearly, there's a business in here somewhere.

Just wait for my upcoming post on ganglion cysts. :-)

ice said...

So, duct tape didn't work for me. Or did it?

Here's the story:
Early November 2011 I noticed a little pain on the tip of my 4th toe. A week or so later it was a full blown wart. It was located just near enough the side of the toe that it caused some nice friction with the 3rd toe. Of course that meant pain while walking.

I froze the wart in November. Nothing. Went to the doc in December and she made a mess of it, trying to scrape the top off. Nothing. Went back to the doc in January and she froze it. Nothing. Froze it at home again in January. Nothing.

Near the end of January I read this post and decided to try duct tape. For the first couple weeks I was changing the duct tape after showers a couple times a week, but it didn't seem effective at all. Then I decided to do one taping for an entire week and really let the thing get nasty. I did that for 2 months. I would file it down on the off days and sometimes freeze it. Still, it didn't seem to get better at all. However, the duct tape did provide a much better level of comfort. There was almost no pain when walking because the duct tape reduced the friction on the wart.

At the beginning of April I removed the duct tape, remembering that the duct tape study said most people lose their warts within a month of treatment. I kind of just gave up. The wart dried out and seemed to get a bit bigger, but I paid it no heed.

Today I took a shower and decided I would wrap it up in duct tape again to reduce the pain. Before I could do that I noticed the wart really seemed raised up. I noticed some darkness near the base. All of that was because the wart was partially falling off. I dug it out and got the crater that several people here have mentioned. So now I'm wondering if I'm out of the woods or not.

But anyway, perhaps the duct tape method worked and I needed to let the toe dry out for a substantial time. Or maybe the wart was on its own schedule. Hard to know, but thanks for all of the information here. Very helpful.

Betsie said...

I'm convinced. Off to the DIY shop tomorrow for duct tape to get a pesky wart out from underneath my 5year old daughter's big toe. She doesn't even want me to touch it much, don't know how we will go with the filing business, but it' worth a try. Great wart blog;-)

Anonymous said...

Wow! This has been very helpful! thank you! I am on my fifth day of duct tape (all whitish) and wondering how long it is supposed to take. this has answered my questions!

Anonymous said...

IT WORKS!! BELIEVE ME!!

I had one on my foot, between my 2nd to smallest and up one..

Next - DUCT TAPE -- nice and tight. Not too tight but a little pulsing in the foot is fine.

I am on WEEK 4. I had these warts for 1 yr and they were only growing outward!!! And moved over onto the next toe!!

back to week four - IT'S ALMOST GONE!!!

unbeleivable!

TRY IT! I WASTED MY MONEY AT THE DOCTOR. too!!!!

Mag said...

It's great to see to amount of success everyone is getting on this, started the duct tape treatment combined with acid yesterday, and after reading these I'm very confident this will be the thing that finally kills my warts, I've tried freezing before which would work a bit but my warts would just come back in the same place bigger and badder than ever, I've got quite a few large clusters on my right middle finger, which are really embarrassing and i've had enough, this is war. Wish me luck.

Are there any other things that may help such as eating certain foods or vitamins, really need this to work this time... thank you.

daniel said...

I have this thing on my plantar.. it doesnot look like the pictures of warts i have seen on the internet.. it seems neat :P.. but has two or three very tiny black dots on it.. so i think it is a wart.. i am goin to start the duct tape method.. I just wanted to ask you people, when you remove the tape after a week, is it painful? does the duct tape take of any part of the wart or your skin with it while removing?

NewlyAwakened said...

Great blog. I had a wart on my thumb that was newish (last 2 years or so?) that would get cracked a lot due to the location. It was really bleeding bad while on vacation due to me bumping it so I put on a bandaid. Within a couple of days I could tell something was going on. After about 4 days it came out, left a small crater in the side of my thumb. It has now healed over and is completely flat. I am now keeping a bandaid on one that I have on my middle finger that I have had for about 9 years that I thought was just a callous from writing. My son has one on his neck and so I used one of the Dr. Scholl's home kits for freezing and using the salicylic acid liquid. I tried that on the thumb over and over and sometimes it would freeze it away but it always came back. Only time will tell if the one on my thumb comes back or not. Hopefully I will remember and come back here and update in the future. I can say that it doesn't really have to be duct tape and that a bandaid will work out just as well. Just keep it covered and change it out if it gets gross. I am even using the little round bandaids and a bigger rectangle one over it to make sure it is nice and covered. Same thing for the one on my son's neck.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it works. Its the formaldyhide in the adhesive on the tape. If your dermatologist doesnt know this you need to find a different Dr. You can also soak the wart in formaldyhide and get the same result

DJXiej said...

I did the duct tape treatment on a common wary on my thumb (right next to the nail), and after 16 days it fell off and left a crater. Worked perfectly! And the best part was it was free!

Sandra Rousseau said...

In the past when I used Compound W, the warts would fall off but grow right back. Then I heard about usng iodine, and now it is my preferred method for removing warts. Iodine is cheap and the method is painless. Like using duct tape, the wart is not instantly gone, but I like using iodine because doesn't hurt a bit, doesn't cost much and the warts stay gone.

Here's how I do it: http://smartandfun.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Remove-Warts-at-Home-Painless-Easy-and-Cheap-Remedies-You-May-Not-Have-Heard-Of

Unknown said...

I developed a wart on my elbow a month ago. Tried duct tape. Wart almost gone within three days. All I can say is magic. I am 47.

Unknown said...

I developed a wart on my elbow a month ago. Tried duct tape. Wart almost gone within three days. All I can say is magic. I am 47.

Joe said...

I saw some speculation early in the thread that it is possibly a placebo effect. I would respectfully have to disagree.

When my daughter was 5 years old, she developed a nasty plantar wart on one of her smaller toes. I decided to try DTOT on her as I have been so lucky to have suffered having mine frozen, burned with acid, and eventually removed surgically. I chose to try to spare her the pain.

At the time, she did not understand why I was putting duct tape on her toe. I simply told her that we had to keep it covered. Well, she did exactly that.

One week later we had the tape off to give her a bath. She accidentally bumped her toe and the entire monstrosity of a wart fell off. Yes, it left the much-noted crater. Seeing the crater in her toe brought my poor baby to tears. When I asked if it hurt, she said, "No." Instead, she said that, "It is just scary to see a hole in your toe." I get it.

Unfortunately, many years later now, I have had a plantar wart reappear on my own foot. Today is day 1 of DTOT for me. I've got my fingers crossed.

rita said...

I have had a reoccurring wart on my finger which the doc removed a couple times with his various "professional" methods. It always came back. I decided to take matters into my own hands this time and found the apple cider vinegar method. I soaked a bit of cotton ball in the vinegar and secured it with blue electrical tape. I didn't find out until it was almost gone that the cure is the tape! I didn't have duct tape, so in a pinch you can use electrical. I am VERY curious about the science of this method.

Unknown said...

A wart has grown steadily bigger/longer/more raised (like Pinocchio's nose) on the back of my knee/thigh over the last year or so. Firstly, my GP confirmed it was indeed a wart and sprayed it with the freezey stuff. He said come back in 2/3 weeks and he'd work on it every few weeks. I really wasn't up for that and didn't really have time with my work schedule so I tried using Wartner. This didn't really do anything. I began filing the wart a bit and applying it, and obviously it wore down every time I filed it but this wasn't really getting rid of the problem. Nevertheless I eventually filed it right down to the base/the level of my skin in impatience and left it alone. I covered it with a band aid because it hurt against my jeans. After a week or so it had grown really long and was more raised, the biggest it had ever been, so obviously filing it down so much was not a good idea. I left it alone again and just kept it covered with a band aid, out of sight out of mind. THEN, I thought I'd try the duct tape method. I used the normal silver ribbed looking one, cut out a bit to cover the pretty raised wart, and stuck a band aid over it to keep it in place for 6 days. Today is day 6 so I took it off an hour ago and holy moly the majority of this pretty long wart came off with the band aid/duct tape combo! Before it was rough and hard but now it's half the size and all white and soft and mushy. I soaked it in warm water and I am now leaving it to dry up a bit before I file it a tiny bit with an emery board. I will then reapply duct tape in the morning for another 6 days. I really hope this is working! so far so good, it's looking promising! Will update in 6 days!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ellen said...

Does anyone ever actually come back to report their progress? If they don't, does that mean it worked and they just forgot about it or it didn't work and they were too angry or disappointed to post again?

Anyway, there's no flipping way I could keep the same piece of duct tape in place with my life, so I'm going to try the replace-every-day method.

I have tried. EVERYTHING. OTC stuff, liquid nitrogen, acid, intralesional antiviral injections, oral cimetidine, topical chemotherapy, for chrissake, and a frickin laser. Some things worked at first and some didn't, but the bugger comes back with more friends every time it goes away.

After 2 days I see no change, but I'm not surprised. Time shall tell...

Unknown said...

With duct tape being my last resort and the result is disappointing after weeks. I think the best thing to do with warts is not to try treating them in the first place, cause it is true that they get mightier in sizes and numbers after all the treatments. It is so true that I do not see follow ups or report after the wart fallen off. What happened to me was they got uglier than ever before. I wished I never touched them in the first place!

Sarah Bailey said...

Our pediatrician says that duct tape works because of the ingredient "salacylic acid" in it.

rita said...

Two of my wart haven't returned. One returned, so I'm going to try again.
Medicine and freezing have not been as effective as duct tape so far.

Ellen said...

Okay, day 6 (after the first 2 days I figured out how to keep the same piece of tape on) and I have removed the tape. A significant amount of dead skin came off with the tape but sadly all that has done is expose the warts, as they have grown quite deep after repeated treatments.

Not to worry, though, that is a necessary step! I may be cheating, but I applied a couple drops of topical chemo (5-FU, for those interested) after soaking and buffing and loosely covered with a band-aid for the evening. The plan is to remove the band-aid when I go to bed and won't be walking directly on the exposed viral warts. No sense contaminating my entire apartment.

I'll try to come back again.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure what 5-FU is, but if it doesn't work, try the iodine method I mentioned several comments above. Iodine has gotton rid of all my warts and they did not grow back. Perhaps ti killed the virus? I'm not sure but it worked for me on several warts in several areas, mostly on my hands. Here's a write-up of what I did:
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Remove-Warts-at-Home-Painless-Easy-and-Cheap-Remedies-You-May-Not-Have-Heard-Of

Unknown said...

I am trying Gorilla Tape. . Will report results.

JRintz said...

My granddaughter has a cluster of 6 Wart's on ball of foot we are in day 3 of duck tape and all the black seeds things are gone but the Wart's look like Creators now.. Is that the dead skin part to punish off

JRintz said...

That's the same stage with my granddaughter what happens next.. Do you know

Sheila West said...

Hi. I am a nursing assistant and so I know a bit about first aid and also about the proper care and treatment of human skin. I am right now attempting duct tape to fight two warts I've had for 2 years, each one located on the inside band of the top joints of both of my thumbs. (Not completely sure but I theorize that when I bought my used car two years ago, the steering wheel was infected with the wart virus by the previous owner.)

My hands are endlessly inside of gloves and also always getting wet with repeated handwashing. So I need to wrap the duct tape ALL THE WAY around each thumb knuckle, that way the daily friction and hand washing cannot dislodge the duct tape. But I found that the "not warty" part of my thumb knuckles (the top side of the knuckles) was getting irritated by the duct tape. So here's how I resolved that skin irritation:

STEP ONE: I only cut pieces of duct tape big enough to cover each wart on the undersides of my knuckles. But such small bits of tape were prone to getting knocked off during the day with work and handwashing. So ....

STEP TWO: I would wrap the knuckle with thin strips of white medical tape (a category of tape specifically designed to be in contact with human skin without irritating it). This anchors the tiny bits of duct tape in place because NOW there is at last a complete circumference of tape all the way around each knuckle. However, the medical tape is very flimsy and tends to shred in less than an hour with work and friction and handwashing. So ....

STEP THREE: I would then wrap a very thin strip of MORE duct tape around the entire business, protecting the medical tape from the friction. I find I can leave this construction on for days at a time without it shredding or falling off or interfering with work. I am on Day Three of having this all in place without any relief. I intend to remove it all later today and get a peak at the progress.

Sheila West said...

Hello again! I am back to post an update from yesterday! :) This post of mine is WAY TO LONG, so I will post it in two parts.

Yesterday afternoon, I took off the three-day-old bandage of duct tape and medical tape from my thumb knuckles. The warts found on the inner-bands of both my thumb knuckles were easily 70% smaller than last week. :) I dried them off and then immersed both thumbs into straight, undiluted chlorine bleach (bleach kills almost anything on contact, including HIV) to try and exterminate any lingering wart virus on the skin surface found beneath the now-discarded bandage. (The virus is still there, inside my epidermis, but the point of the bleach was to fight against any surface virus and hopefully prevent spreading the virus to other skin surfaces and/or working surfaces as I continued the treatment for the next 10 minutes.) I found that as the bleach dried, it also dried my skin terribly --good! I'm glad! The warts on each thumb knuckle were rendered white and pliable as a result of the bleaching and subsequent skin drying. I attacked both warts with nail clippers and emery boards. (I have a separate set of nail clippers dedicated just for this process. Clipping warts with nail clippers will contaminate the clippers with the wart virus, so I simply CANNOT use the same clippers to clip nails at a later date.) It hurt terribly to clip at the warts because I am getting VERY deep into the epidermis, and I am triggering pain receptors. TOO BAD! I will soldier onward. The warts are obviously very deep in the epidermis, and have likely sent down "root-like" structures beneath the epidermis and into the dermis itself to tap into a blood vessel somewhere down there. (I have seen that happen before with my own warts in the past --they anchor themselves quite firmly onto a blood vessel, and once they accomplish that neat trick, they then feast endlessly on my blood, and such blood-fortified warts are usually the most devilishly impossible things to get rid of.) When I reach the point of actual pain when clipping and filing away at a wart, it usually means the wart is extra deep, but it also usually means I am almost there and so I simply cannot stop now, no matter how painful it is. DANGER! I might suffer an infection, so I am careful to sanitize EVERYTHING that I am working with --the clippers, the emery board (I always use a disposable emery board, and I throw it away after just one wart-attacking session and I never reuse it again) I use latex gloves, and lots of bleach. And then when I am done, I sanitize everything afterward to try and kill any lingering wart virus on the surfaces of the clippers and on the surface of my skin. And then I bleach my thumbs off for the 20th time, and then --to stave off infection-- I apply alcohol and Neosporin to the part of my skin where I was filing down and clipping with emery boards and nail clippers. ALSO (this is important) I always have a large paper towel on my lap to catch all the white powdery dead skin that falls link sawdust from my thumbs as I am filing away at the wart. When I am finished, I gather up the paper towel and throw it away --along with all the particles of virus contaminate skin powder. I bleach my thumbs yet again. Then when the thumbs dry, I apply another duct tape/medical tape bandage ring.

Sheila West said...

PART TWO if my post. :)


I have had this duct tape and medical tape bandage ring on both thumbs for almost 24 hours now. I intend to leave this one on for another 5 days before attacking it again with another round of clipping and bleaching and emery board filing. I suspect that when I take it all off next week on Tuesday, I will likely find the following:

-- I suspect I will find the warts have shrunk even more.
-- I suspect that when I use the nail clippers and emery board that it will not only hurt like hell, but that I will also see my first dot of blood --which means I will be hitting that mysterious yet crucial blood vessel which I am so certain is feeding this sucker. But once again, I cannot allow myself to stop, even though it's going to hurt and even though I will surely hit the stage where I am drawing a dot of blood. When I hit that tiny dot of blood, that's when I've hit pay-dirt! That's when I have finally reached the roots of the damned thing, and I am finally within reach of eradicating it! But infection is a threat when blood happens, so I must take precautions against infection!

My very first wart ever was when I was in college (over 20 years ago). It was a tiny thing on the tip of my pinky finger. After a year I got annoyed enough with it that I finally attacked it on a daily basis with emery boards. It took a month (back during college) of filing it every day with emery boards (I always throw them away after just a single use and NEVER reuse them!). And then when I got mad enough at that stupid 20-years-ago wart of mine from my college years, that was when I used nail clippers, and I finally hit the blood vessel. Back in my dorm room from 20 years ago, I could literally SEE the blood vessel pulsing beneath my skin, and when I kept clipping at the wart tissue, that as when I drew the first dot of blood.

This is an important point I want to make about the blood vessel -- most dermatologists will tell you that warts only live in the epidermis and that they supposedly NEVER penetrate down into the dermis itself. And yet the dermis is where the blood vessels and the nerves are. So ... I can state from experience that the toughest warts I have ever had ALWAYS come with a hijacked blood vessel hidden down beneath their roots. So perhaps the warts themselves "live" only in the epidermis, but like weeds, my warts always send underground shoots down into the dermis and siphon off of a blood vessel. And they additionally hurt like hell (which means there are nerves involved) when I clip them with nail clippers.

As a side note, I have also attacked the steering wheel of my car with lots of cleaners to try and kill any lingering wart virus there (although I refuse to bleach the steering wheel as it'll stain). And I clean my cell phone off also.

I'll be back next week with an update! :)

Sheila West said...

Hi, I am back again! :) I once again have a VERY long post, so I am going to break it up into two parts.

PART ONE:

================

Both warts on the bands of both thumb knuckles are easily 90% gone now. It still haven't hit the blood vessel, but I will attempt to find it this weekend. More clipping and emery board filing. It's not gone yet but it will be soon.

Meanwhile, I have a meager hypothesis to suggest my notion on why the duct tape works. Specifically, I have become a believer in the idea that the duct tape is responsible for some kind of a highly beneficial "smothering" dynamic.

As background, a very non-scientific description offered by a lot of nurses who swear by this method is that the duct tape "smothers" the wart, as if warts need oxygen to survive. And at first I dismissed that concept and imagery for a number of reasons. First, Plantar warts are easily operating and thriving in a "smothered" environment, so that to me is a non sequitur. And second (and here's the important part), the duct tape itself as applied by most duct tape users (most of the people who use duct tape for killing warts) is more than likely covering both the wart skin and the non-wart skin, and yet the non-wart skin doesn't wither and die the same way that the wart skin does. But then this second assertion of mine caused me to do a double-take, I revisited that fact right there, and then the "smothering" concept suddenly made sense for the first time to me.

I now believe that the life cycle of a wart requires for it to always be exposed to the outside air in order for it to survive --but NOT because it needs to "breathe" the air in and out, but rather because it needs the medium of air to dispose of some of its own cellular waste. A sloppy comparison of this hypothetical function might be to liken it to the need of humans to sweat, and also the need of dogs to pant. A less-sloppy comparison can be found in the dynamic at work when moth ball crystals evaporate. Moth crystals are a solid substance which slowly dissolve from the solid state into a gas state --so they off-gas. And I suspect that warts NEED to off-gas. But then when you immerse the warts into an air-tight environment, you strangle their ability to off-gas. They suffocate and die from their own cellular toxins.

I further hypothesize that there are two --possibly three-- kinds of wart tissue in any given wart infection. 1) The initial, soft, basic, "baby" wart tissue that forms at the outset of a wart. And, 2) The hardened inner-core, and this inner-core is what eventually taps downward into a blood vessel. In my hypothesis, the inner-core doesn't actually develop until the wart has had time to mature into a well organized colony of cells (possibly many months to a year). Once this very hard inner-core takes root and hijacks a blood vessel, I believe this now-firmly-anchored-to-a-blood-vessel part of the wart reinforces itself by producing more layers of the "baby wart tissue" up above, exposed to the air. These baby tissues can eventually become part of the inner core, much like the outer bark of a tree eventually becomes part of the hard wood inside the trunk. But during the formative time period when any newly-arrived baby tissues are NOT YET part of the inner-core, those baby tissues receive their nutrition from the inner-core (getting a second-hand meal from the hijacked blood vessel), but the baby tissues must get rid of SOME (if not all) of their own cellular waste via off-gassing.

When you cover the wart with the duct tape, even though it's ONLY my hypothetical "baby wart tissue" which is being smothered, the entire wart colony still suffers from it. The off-gassing function has been completely shut off now. The baby wart tissue dies within a day or two. The hard inner-core remains, but it is in distress.

And now I want to embark upon a SECOND aspect to my hypothesis. (Go to my second post here.)


================


Sheila West said...

PART TWO:

================

The second half of my hypothesis/suggestion addresses the general assumption that warts tend to fly under the radar of the body's immune system. I suspect that part of the ingenuity found in a wart's ability to avoid tripping the alarms of the body's normal defenses includes the ability to get rid of cellular waste via my proposed off-gassing. Therefore (if I am correct) any given wart colony is evidently NOT dumping a toxic mess of its own cellular waste into the blood stream --something that would raise alarms all over the body. By being neat and tidy with its own waste, the wart can discreetly siphon lots of yummy nutritious blood into itself while simultaneously venting (some or maybe all of) its waste into the outside air, and thus leave no "waste footprint" for the body to detect. But as soon as the wart gets faced with the emergency need to start shoveling its waste into the blood stream, the body's alarms all go off and start attacking the wart at the point where the dumping is happening.

The upshot of all this is that while the baby wart tissue dies very quickly due to the waste suffocation from above, the inner-core takes a while longer via the immune system dismantling the inner-core from below.

================

And now I want to add a tangent theory to all of this.

Let's talk about cancer.

Warts have been likened to tumors. But if warts can give off a gas, can tumors also? It has been demonstrated that some dogs can literally sniff out the existence of a cancer in a patient --especially breast cancer. When this discovery about the uncanny ability of dogs to LITERALLY smell the presence of a tumor inside of someone, programs developed to train dogs on how to sniff for such tumors.

So ... if warts can be "smothered" out of existence, can the same be done to tumors? I'm not advocating duct tape for use in oncology (especially INSIDE the body!). But can the tumor be made to die via some clever method of denying it the ability to dispose of its own waste?

Sheila West said...

I'm back! :)

Another 4 days of duct tape and medical tape on both thumb bands, followed by emery boards, and I think I might have achieved 100% eradication. I will watch it for a few more days, and I will attack again with more duct tape if I see any warty tissue reappearing.

Meanwhile, I want to revisit the theory I proposed above. I haven't changed my position, I merely want to reiterate it in a more refined way.

I believe that all warts need SOME of their cells to protrude up out of the surface of the epidermis in order to allow the wart to vent the wart colony's cellular waste out via the air (off-gassing) and to further vent also via liquid secretions (maybe I can coin the term "wart sweat" here). But then the duct tape provides a perfectly air-tight seal across the top of the wart, utterly cutting the wart off from the world outside of the body and shutting down any further venting. This forces the wart to vent/funnel its own cellular waste down into the body rather than out into the air. Meanwhile, as soon as the wart begins dumping its own cellular wastes down into the body, the sudden presence of these wastes in the body triggers the immune system to attack the wart. The wart colony can "choose" (or rather, the wart colony can respond to its own evolutionary programming, depending upon which variety of wart virus we're dealing with here) to either a) try to absorb some of its own waste in an attempt to minimize the triggering of the immune system, but this attempt at holding in its own waste is actually a path to auto-toxification and eventual cellular death of the wart, or b) dump 100% of its waste into the body and thus bring on the full wrath of the body's immune system. I suspect that when the duct tape application gets resorted to, the wart colony suffers BOTH auto-toxification AND immune system assault, and thus gets smothered by the duct tape from above while simultaneously dismantled by the immune system from below. So the auto-toxification weakens he wart colony, and then the previously oblivious immune system attacks a weakened wart with full force. Therefore the dramatic and rapid results that get achieved.

As for any protests against this theory based upon the obvious fact that plantar warts are pretty well locked up inside of a person's shoes all day, I would argue that 1) the shoes do come off at the end of the day instead of remaining on for a week at a time as we see in the duct tape method, 2) shoes and socks are not an utterly air-tight seal, and 3) perhaps a wicking action is achieved via the cloth of a person's socks whereby the fabric in socks adequately carries the toxins away from the wart.

Regardless of whether or not my theory is correct, my warts are pretty much gone now. (Or as my uncle from Vermont might say: "They're prit-near done.") And this took less than 3 weeks to achieve.

Unknown said...

I've had planters warts as a kid. My mother bought and tried every flipping thing out there including wrapping my foot with a turpentine soaked rag. Stunk like crazy, did nothing. I finally just stopped trying and in time they went away.

Well fast forward and now I have a huge common wart on my big toe. It's summer and flip flops don't bother it but... omg. Put on shoes? I gotta do something.

Didn't know plain old duct tape works. My neighbor said gorilla tape does it. I got some yesterday. Also bought an expensive wart treatment kit. (Keeping that in the box with receipt. Gonna try this tape thing first.)

Sure wish someone would actually study this. Too many cases of it working to just be placebo effect.

Ryan H said...

I like that this thread is super old, and people still keep going!

Here is my untested unscientific theory about why duct tape works.

I will first make two observations. (1) Plantar warts don't spread to skin beyond the soles and possibly the palms. That means that the virus needs a special type of skin to live in. (2) taping corns and thick calluses will make them thin out over time because the skin won't grow calluses when there is no friction. Putting these observations together, the HPV needs a callused sole, and taping makes calluses go away; so perhaps the HPV dies because its habitat is gone.

I wonder if other methods of thinning calluses would be just as effective. For example, what would happen if you didn't wear shoes and used a wheel chair for four weeks. Because your feet wouldn't get action, your calluses would thin and your soles would be more like baby skin. Would the warts also disappear? Someone should give it a try!

Do wheelchair bound paraplegics ever get plantar warts?

Do coma patients quickly lose plantar warts that they got before the coma started?

The theory is that kids get plantar warts more than adults because kids are barefoot more often, so kids get more exposure to the virus. Perhaps the barefootedness doesn't just increase exposure; perhaps the barefootedness also causes calluses to be thicker so the warts heal slower and get noticed more often.

Unknown said...

Ok, so I have a wart - pretty sure on the palm of my hand for two years now - friggin thing drives me nuts! I have never had warts in my life until I started cleaning as a part time (2nd job) of course I couldn't leave the stupid thing alone picked at it and now it's spread into two or three warts on palm of my hand. I do see a very tiny black dot in center of wart (s) I have tried over $40 of at home "freeze" treatments and "acid" treatments, nothing has helped at all. I am desperate to get rid of these unslightly embarrassing annoying warts so gonna try the duct tape method. I read thru quite a few of the posts but most were about feet. Does anyone know or have had warts on palm of hand before? any suggestions would help. I am about to just go to a dermatologist but after I get a stupid referral from my primary care doctor and pay co-pay at Dermatologist gonna cost me $80 or more. Thanks to anyone that can provide a word of advice! :)

Patski said...

I have had a pencil-head eraser-size wart on my knee for several years. Freezing it and incising it had not eliminated it and it would always grow back. I had heard about the duct tape method, but didn't want to go around with a duct tape patch on my knee, so I used a razor blade to shave the wart as close as I could. If it bled, I let that heal over first and then painted the wart and near environs with nail polish clear coat. The clear coat would eventually peel off the surrounding skin, but would remain stuck to the wart footprint. I would occasionally have to replace the clear coat, but over time, the footprint has just about disappeared. In my imagination, the clear coat was effective because it was cutting off oxygen to the virus that produces the wart. When I told my new dermatologist about my strategy, she said the duct tape works because something in it is seen as attacking the body and the body's immune system responds to that and kills the virus in the process. She said the clear coat might be causing the same type of response.

Pam said...

My daughter has two warts on her face. One between the corner of her eye and nose, and the other one on her eye lid. I have tired tons of home remedies (apple cider, aloe, tea tree) and freezing them off at the dermatologist. The warts grow back every time. I am now cutting little round circles of bandaids and placing them directly on the warts with hopes of having the same effect of duct tape but a little less unsightly then duct tape on her face.... Thoughts?? I was hoping to suffocate them this way, but maybe I need to do duct tape for the "chemical" effect and less breathable barrier????

Patski said...

Pam - My guess would be that bandaids don't work because if they did, then people would have been using them all along instead of duct tape. My comment before yours said that I had good luck with nail polish clear coat. It took awhile, but my wart had been there for years and nothing else had worked. The good thing was that it is near invisible except for some possible shine. But you'd have to be really careful using it near the eye! You might even want to ask a dermatologist or eye doctor whether there would be any risk to putting it on the delicate lid. (I am not a doctor -- nor do I play one on TV!) The other consideration I can think of would be that your daughter should be careful when washing her face. The clear coat can sometimes flake off and if it fell into her eye, it might be hard to see and remove.

angie1938 said...

I've had plantar warts removed previously by burning/freezing off (20 years ago). It was not fun, and hurt quite a bit! Even worse, it was temporary and they returned. Several years ago, I had another plantar wart that I removed with the duct tape method. It wasn't painful, it wasn't expensive or toxic. I couldn't believe how simple it was. I have always figured that it was some combination of smothering the darn thing, and keeping it moist and clammy? When my daughter had a wart on her leg as a toddler, I tried using the homeopathic remedy Thuja and covered the wart with Thuja ointment with a bandaid. It happened to be summertime and we were spending a lot of time at the pool. My daughter was deathly afraid of bandaid removal, so I left the bandaid on as long as necessary until it started to fall off. One day, while we were swimming she noticed that the bandaid had become half-detached. She started to get hysterical in the pool so I got her out of the water and into the locker room. The wart had broken open and was filled with tiny white wiry little thread-like things. There was a small crater/divot in her leg that was pink and raw looking but didn't bleed. I wiped the area with a wet paper towel and the white thready bits came off. I threw it away and washed our hands. It was GROSS! The pieces looked like tiny white worms. I had no idea what the heck it was, but it obviously was what was inside of the wart. She was left with a scar, but hasn't had a wart since!

Patski said...

That's fascinating, Angie. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Unknown said...

My 8 year old son has several warts. One is on the tip of his middle finger right by his nail. I've tried everything for the past 2 years. It won't go away. He also has one on another finger right on top of the cuticle that we got rid of but came right back. Also has a very small one on his thumb near the bend lines, 1 on his elbow and 1 on his knee. I started the duct tape treatment tonight but my questions are: do you use just enough duct tape to cover the wart? And if it covers more than the spot will the skin the duct tape is touching be effected? The wart on the tip of his finger is very hard and bubbled up. I've shaved it down but I can't get a piece of duct tape to lay flat on the whole wart. It creases and wants to come off. Help. Lol thank you