Lose the warts, keep the foot

January 9, 2007 11:27 AM

Duct tape wart removal. Details, personal experiences, suggestions needed. How do you keep the duct tape dry in the shower? Is it OK if you don't? What if you have to replace it more than once a week? Grossish details inside.

I've been using the duct tape method of wart removal on a cluster of warts on the bottom of my foot. I tried freezing and salicylic acid first, but they spread. I've now been using the duct tape for about a month. I have to replace the duct tape about twice a week, usually after it falls off in the shower. I keep it secured with paper tape the rest of the time. When it falls off, I replace it immediately. I clip off surrounding skin as it dies.

Herein is the problem. See, the warts are as hale and hardy as ever, but any skin underneath the duct tape is looking pretty sad and coming off like crazy. Is this normal?

Also, the thing I said about the warts being hardy isn't entirely true. See, I couldn't keep the duct tape dry in the shower (plastic bags and wrap didn't work), and I read you don't want to leave it off ever, so I've been leaving it on, secured by paper tape. And now when the duct tape falls off, the warts and surrounding skin are a disturbing greenish gray. Is this normal? I'm not rotting my foot off, right?

OK, so does anyone have anything more specific about what I should be doing? Even the medical study of the duct tape effect is sadly detail-less on what to do about replacing duct tape and keeping it dry in the shower.

posted by schroedinger to health & fitness (37 comments total)

Duct tape wart removal does not work.
posted by dead_ at 11:37 AM on January 9, 2007

Might be usefull.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061213/LIFE/612130312
posted by JakeLL at 11:38 AM on January 9, 2007

And here's the link.
posted by dead_ at 11:39 AM on January 9, 2007

I got rid of a little wart on my thumb by cutting off the protruding bit, filling the gouge in with salicylic acid and covering it all in duct tape. I don't know which treatment individually had the most impact.

Try slicing it up a bit so the medicine gets better contact! If duct tape works at all, changing it every day won't diminish the effectiveness.
posted by thirteenkiller at 11:46 AM on January 9, 2007

Salicylic acid may take several months to work. I'd ditch the duct tape efforts and either stick with the salicylic acid and be ever so religious about it for however long it takes or I'd go to the doctor and have him take care of them.

Warts suck.
posted by Sassyfras at 11:46 AM on January 9, 2007

Several Mefites reported duct tape success in this previous thread. Based on that thread, I suspect the problem is the not-keeping-it-dry, which forces you to replace the tape too often, which defeats the whole purpose of the duct tape. If plastic bags really don't work for you, would it be possible for you to take a bath instead of a shower (leaving the duct tape foot out of the water, obviously)?
posted by somanyamys at 11:48 AM on January 9, 2007

Plastic bags didn't work? Did you tie them very thoroughly? When I had a cast I put a garbage bag over my leg and then wrapped duct tape tightly around my thigh to seal it, as it were. I also used a hand-held shower attachment.
posted by JanetLand at 11:48 AM on January 9, 2007

I've been using medical adhesive tape to treat a couple of warts around my fingernails. It's the only thing that has worked, and they are much diminished after a couple of weeks of this treatment. I take the tape off while I'm in the shower, and then replace it when I get out. I think this is better, especially on fingers, because it lets you keep the area clean. Every few days I keep the tape off for a day and let the skin dry completely, and then file down the hard dead skin with a nail file.
posted by autojack at 11:50 AM on January 9, 2007

Or apparently changing the tape every day WILL diminish the effectiveness. Iunno.
posted by thirteenkiller at 11:52 AM on January 9, 2007

<disclaimer>I don't recommend you actually try this. Also, some might find this gross.</disclaimer>

I had a huge wart near my knee once that wouldn't go away. I tried freezing, acid, and duct tape. One day I got fed up and just ripped the sucker off. I used my fingernail to get under it on one side (that's when it started to bleed), and then I just took a deep breath and pulled it off. It hurt and bled a lot but the damn thing never came back. I'd probably just do the same thing if I ever get another one. It sucks for a couple hours but then it's over.
posted by flyingcowofdoom at 11:57 AM on January 9, 2007

Waste of time. See a dermatologist and get it done right.
posted by trevyn at 12:11 PM on January 9, 2007

Duct tape wart removal does not work.

Waste of time. See a dermatologist and get it done right.

These of course is a generalizations, as I can testify that it worked well for me against a particularly stubborn wart on my foot that simply refused to yield to liquid nitrogen. (I avoid surgery unless it's absolutely necessary - and yes, wart removal is surgery)

I used a wart cream (Duroplant, I think) and covered the area in duct tape. I learned to shower on one leg, and left the tape in place for as long as it held together, then changed cream and tape. After about two weeks, the whole thing simply peeled off and has not returned.
posted by Neiltupper at 12:33 PM on January 9, 2007

Maybe it was the wart cream and not the tape?

Seriously, go to your doctor.
posted by dead_ at 12:53 PM on January 9, 2007

disclaimer>I don't recommend you actually try this. Also, some might find this gross.

I had a huge wart near my knee once that wouldn't go away. I tried freezing, acid, and duct tape. One day I got fed up and just ripped the sucker off. I used my fingernail to get under it on one side (that's when it started to bleed), and then I just took a deep breath and pulled it off. It hurt and bled a lot but the damn thing never came back. I'd probably just do the same thing if I ever get another one. It sucks for a couple hours but then it's over.
posted by flyingcowofdoom

Once while working at a restaurant, a friend and I went for the same pair of serving tongs on the steam counter. I was just a bit faster and in a freak chance accident the part of the tongs near the hinge clamped on a wart on his hand and pulled it clean out. He said it was intensely painful for a few moments, dull and painful for a few hours, and then the wart never came back. I don't think he ever forgive me, though. Alas. Anyways, I wouldn't have that done either but just adding color. I think duct tape wart removal is some kind of urban legend.
posted by Burhanistan at 12:54 PM on January 9, 2007

Also, look into laser wart treatment.
posted by Burhanistan at 12:57 PM on January 9, 2007

If the wart is not flattened, which it may well be being on the foot, you can tie dental floss around it tightly using a butchers knot.This cuts off the blood supply. Takes ten days or so.
posted by Dr.Pill at 1:02 PM on January 9, 2007

PS. IANAD
posted by Dr.Pill at 1:04 PM on January 9, 2007

I'm surprised so many people are so negative about using duct tape on warts. Elsewhere I've heard many people singing the praises of this inexpensive, painless, and effective method!

I had a plantar wart a while back on the soft underside of the joint of my big toe - hurt like hell, and was beginning to screw up my ankle and knee because I was walking strangely to alleviate the pressure on the side of my foot. Salicylic acid did next to nothing for about six months. I tried duct tape out of desperation and the thing was gone in three weeks.

What I did: replaced the tape every day, and continued using the salicylic acid. Each morning I placed enough tape on the (clean, dry) wart to both cover the entire affected area *and* to keep the tape affixed to my foot (in my case, a relatively narrow strip that just wrapped around my toe - I'd do the same thing around my entire foot if my wart was in the same place as yours is). I left it on until the next morning when I showered. The tape would come off relatively easily after the shower, when I'd let the foot air out for a bit, and replace the acid and tape after it thoroughly dried. After the tape began to work (a week or so in to treatment) I would remove it at night, as I read that the tape works both by cutting air to the area *as well as* by exfoliating when it is removed - so, I ripped it off heartily at night and would eyeball the area for bits I could cut off. Acid, tape, repeat, etc.

Do a little googling on the method and you'll find plenty of sites with directions (similar to mine). The other huge plus to this method is that it certainly can't hurt anything, so there's nothing to lose for trying it!
posted by AthenaPolias at 1:05 PM on January 9, 2007

burn them off. I've used a soldering iron over a period of a couple weeks to successfully kill a couple warts on my hand many years ago. The secret is not to leave the iron in contact with your skin long enough to sear anything. Repeated, short bursts of heat are enough to bake the warts over time.

IANAD, and this will definitely hurt, but it's so satisfying when the buggers finally fall off.
posted by pmbuko at 1:07 PM on January 9, 2007

This is the first I'm reading about people using duct tape for wart removal. While duct tape is a fabulous product with thousands of great uses, it just seems obvious that it's not meant for wart removal. If you're using salicylic acid under the tape, then isn't it simply the acid? The tape is a vehicle. Why not just use band-aid type bandages? The adhesive in duct tape might irritate your skin (though it is cheaper over the long run). I'm not fond of doctors, but this is one affliction that they're actually good at treating, even if it takes more than one visit.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:26 PM on January 9, 2007

take a sharp knife or scalpel and cut away the dead white skin from the salicylic acid 2-4 times a day. it is very important not to let it bleed. as soon as you have cut away the skin apply more acid. depending on the size this will take at least a month to get rid of it, but you will start to notice results in a week or so.

a good friend of mine is a dermatologist and he recommends this method to friends (not patients) to get rid of stubborn warts when other options have been tried. it worked great on a plantar that i had.
posted by blueplasticfish at 1:27 PM on January 9, 2007

i agree with a few other people here work at it with a scalpel and keep appyling that acid. its exactly how i took care of mine!
posted by moochoo at 2:06 PM on January 9, 2007

See, the warts are as hale and hardy as ever, but any skin underneath the duct tape is looking pretty sad and coming off like crazy. Is this normal?

It is normal, it's called maceration. And by normal I mean the usual response to being wet all the time and is causing your skin damage. Maceration is a common problem under wound dressings and should be avoided. The main issue is that it's an easy 'in' for infection and you really need to be looking out for this. The infection can get quite bad pretty quickly because it's broken through the skin layer but isn't deep enough to reach the blood vessels. It's also damaging the skin itself, it;s sloughing off after all. Eventually you'll get into the lower layers of skin and cause a big sore.

You really need to let it dry out, clean it up and let the skin heal and grow back. You're probably not rotting your foot off now but you will be if you don't fix this.

I don't know about the warts, never heard of this method for removal. But seriously, get the rest of the skin whole again then go back to dealing with them.
posted by shelleycat at 2:14 PM on January 9, 2007

The infection can get quite bad pretty quickly because it's broken through the skin layer but isn't deep enough to reach the blood vessels.

Oh, which means minimal lymphoctes and stuff will see the infection so your immune system probably won't react to it appropriately. Immune surveillance in the upper skin layers isn't very good.

I've had a macerated finger get infected and it spread quickly and got very sore, very fast. Topical antibiotics are the appropriate remedy and generally work well.
posted by shelleycat at 2:18 PM on January 9, 2007

What has worked for me in the past was tearing up the surface of the wart with a razor and then soaking/rubbing it with rubbing alcohol for several minutes. A couple days of that and all gone.
posted by eas98 at 2:26 PM on January 9, 2007

I went to a dermatologist and had a huge wart on my foot successfully killed by the injection of topical antibiotic. Sounds totally counter-intuitive because warts are caused by a virus, and I'm stil googling to find out exactly what he used.

But the short of it is I had a local anasthetic, he injected the antibiotic directly into the wart, it ached for a day or two, then three weeks later turned black and was easily peeled off with no pain. Amazing.
posted by pivotal at 4:51 PM on January 9, 2007

Ahhh here we go: it was bleomycin, which is actually a topical anti-cancer drug. Fcuk! No wonder it was so expensive ($250-$300 USD for the visit and injection).

Still, it worked perfectly on a wart that had survived freezing.
posted by pivotal at 4:54 PM on January 9, 2007

Wart removal is still not an exact science. The duct tape method (once proved, then disproved) didn't do anything for me but make it spread and stink like Satan's armpit. After removing the tape, the wart is still there though smaller and not vile smelling.

I had a wart on my other foot that I had removed by laser. It grew back so then I had it knifed out. It was finally gone after that. What works for you works for you. See a pro and make sure she has more than one trick up her sleeve.
posted by chairface at 4:56 PM on January 9, 2007

The consensus, as I understand it, is that the duct-tape treatment causes some mild irritation of the area. This results in a little boost to immune and repair mechanisms in the region, which often leads to the eliminatino of the wart.

I also seem to recall that scuffing the area with a fingernail file resulted in similar effects.
posted by chrisamiller at 5:06 PM on January 9, 2007

The consensus, as I understand it, is that the duct-tape treatment causes some mild irritation of the area. This results in a little boost to immune and repair mechanisms in the region, which often leads to the eliminatino of the wart.

I also seem to recall that scuffing the area with a fingernail file resulted in similar effects.

Exactly. Thus, anything that causes local injury to the skin has a decent chance of inciting a local immune response which will lead to the wart's destruction. There also appears to be a benefit to the occlusive effect of the tape. In practice, we often combine monthly visits for cryotherapy with an occlusive dressing and/or a mild salicylic acid application. But there's no sure thing except being diligent.
posted by docpops at 5:20 PM on January 9, 2007

puredoxyk recommends a slice of garlic held in place with a band-aid overnight. Fresh air during the day, and repeat.

Disclaimer: I've never had a wart, so can't say first-hand whether this works, but for some reason the idea fascinated me.
posted by jaruwaan at 5:38 PM on January 9, 2007

pivotal: speaking with some authority here, bleomycin isn't topical. I'm actually somewhat surprised it's used for wart-killing - it's a pretty serious anti-cancer drug, and its mechanism consists of inducing DNA damage [in this case, primarily by cutting DNA strands.] When used as an anti-cancer drug [and thus probably repeatedly and at greater concentrations], it can have fairly serious side-effects. You must've had a pretty nasty wart, to merit something as serious as bleomycin...

As a kid, I got rid of a wart using DuoFilm, which is a combination of salicylic and lactic acid. Worked slowly, but well. I applied it once or twice daily for weeks, and kept the wart covered with a bandage. I really would suggest seeing a dermatologist. While there's no One True Cure for warts, it sounds like you're doing some damage to the surrounding skin - making it easier for that skin to get infected with other stuff, among other things. Do you want to risk having to deal with warts and fungus?
posted by ubersturm at 6:55 PM on January 9, 2007

My podiatrist has had succes with removal of my plantar warts with both the laser (but the month-long recovery is too painful to repeat) and the bleomycin (which was considered experimental, so insurance didn't cover it, therefore is too expensive). One persistant bugger has come back and I've been hitting it with the duct-tape treatment on and off for a year now. Doesn't kill it, but keeps it from growing, and even seems to shrink it very, very slowly.

My duct tape has no trouble keeping out the water in bath or shower. Brand of tape, perhaps? Also, I use a piece a little larger, rather than using an exact wart-sized piece of tape. After just a day or two the wart turns white and smells terrible but the surrounding skin doesn't seem to be affected. This I feel is a good thing -- the wart is obviously hurting.

My method is a little more involved than those listed above -- when I replace the tape, about every week, when it's begun to slip; after peeling it off I clean the area with Bestine, that vital component of my toolkit, the adhesive solvent available at art supply stores. No duct-tape wart-method I've read about addresses cleaning off the filthy residue any user of duct-tape is familar with, but Bestine does the job in a flash. (Other AskMe threads have mentioned a product called GooGone which will probably work as well.) Then before refeshing the tape, I scour the surface with a little tool I believe is made for filing down callouses. This reduces the height so it's not painful to walk on.

Hope this helps...
posted by Rash at 10:33 PM on January 9, 2007

Quickly - The most invaluable tool I have found is a nail clipper for regularly (every evening) cutting away all the dead skin. Evening works best because the skin is most soft then.
posted by spark at 4:20 AM on January 10, 2007

Burhanistan - of course you're right that duct tape isn't meant for wart removal, but there are plenty of things it's not meant to do that it still can. The stuff is incredibly multipurpose. And just as a point of my own experience - no, it wasn't just the acid working, because there was a *huge* difference between using the acid on it's own (faithfully, and for a long period of time) and using the acid with the tape. The effect of adding the tape is fairly dramatic - the acid just aids the removal at that point.
posted by AthenaPolias at 9:55 AM on January 10, 2007

Duct Tape + Wart Remover worked on my stubborn plantar warts. I tried the common wart remover med, no help. I started a new job where I'd be on my feet alot, so I got serious about treating them.

Everyday, I covered almost my whole foot base in Duct Tape, put on a sock, and went on about my day. I was very liberal with the duct tape covering. Every night, I pulled off the duct tape, sanded down whatever I could, and just put wart remover on it. Sleeping with duct tape on my feet annoyed me. I have very sensitive skin, the tape did irritate both healthy and warty skin.

Anyway, mentally, I imagined that the wart germies were starving all day under the tape. Then, when I untaped them at night, they were super hungry but only sucked in poisonous wart remover, and finally, they were suffocated with tape again the next day.

It took less than two weeks to get rid of warts that had persisted for over a year, possibly over 2 years. I had accepted one wart as a fact of a life, but then it started having babies. I didn't believe it would work when I started, but I was desperate.
posted by ick at 10:15 AM on February 7, 2007

Apparently the gluing materials on the tape somehow stimulates the immune system. Not a surprise since they are poisonous. I strongly advise to stick to the professional products and not to use duct tapes.

Another problem with the duct tape and other self treatment methods in general is that sooner or later the wart will come back (unless you improve your immune system) and your skin gets more and more compromised. The risk for developing skin cancer rises as well. Besides painful, cutting or freezing off warts may leave permanent skin marks, etc.

Again, the only lasting way to eliminate warts is to boost your immune system. You can do it either locally or globally. Improving your immune system as a whole takes hell a lot of time and commitment (which is the real deal of course), so if you want quick results you have to look for products that boost your immune system right at the affected area. They are a handful homeopathic products on the market that help to fight the wart causing viruses in a very direct way. Read more about them here:

http://www.nomorewart.com/
posted by htordsen at 3:47 AM on September 18, 2007