Combat Warts Naturally: Top Remedies Ranked for Effectiveness

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Laura (El Paso, TX) on 06/24/2009
★★★★★

My daughter had a wart on her wrist for close to one year. I came across this site and tried ACV on a cottonball w/ bandaid for two nights. The wart started to blacken after the first night's treatment, but the area that the cottonball soaked in ACV had been on was red, itchy, and scaley. I told my daughter to try to deal with it because the desired result was being achieved. The second night I put a layer of petroleum jelly around the wart to keep the ACV from irritating her skin. It worked a bit but it was already irritated so it didn't seem to give her much relief. She was certainly happy when the wart fell off and we could discontinue ACV altogether.

Tea Tree, Coconut Oil

Posted by Kalee (Rice Lake, WI) on 06/20/2009
★★★★★

About 8 months ago I had two warts around and under my pointer and middle finger of my left hand and one on the middle knuckle of my pointer finger on my right hand. I had these warts since I was 16 (I am now 20), so I had them for about 4 years. I had tried many things: Banana peel, duct tape, nail polish, apple cider vinegar, cutting them off, wart remover, freezing them...The list could go on. Some of them decreased the size by a small margin, but barely noticeable. I perform on clarinet and piano, and to have unsightly fingers as mine was embarrassing! Like I said, I tried all those things. I came across the combination of tea tree oil and coconut oil by trial and error. I love this site so when I got fed up with the warts, I came here. I tried tea tree oil on it's own, but it burned my fingers and they turned red and peeled where i had placed the cotton ball. They started going away! But I couldn't stand the burning when I used it. I saw some people used coconut oil on here, so I tried that by itself and it worked a little bit and it healed the burns from the tea tree oil. Then I combined the two and voila! No burns or peeling skin and the warts were gone by the fourth or fifth day of use! What I used was a very small part of a cotton ball with a dab of tea tree oil, then I put a bit of coconut oil on my fingers and wrapped a bandaid around it. Don't use a whole lot of tea tree oil, the piece of cotton should be small enough to fit over the wart, but not much bigger than that. Use more coconut oil than tea tree oil so that the burns won't be that bad. Hope this helps those who can't find a cure like I couldn't!

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Sally (Portland, Oregon) on 06/17/2009
★★★★★

i have been dealing with a wart on the top of my foot for several years. 3+. it would almost go away, then come back. a week ago i decided to try the acv treatment (it's summer and i don't want this unsightly wart on my foot!)

here's what i did. took a cotton ball, soaked it in acv, put the cotton ball on top of the wart, covered it with a bandaid, then covered the band aid with duct tape, left this on for 10+ hours, removed, let the wart breathe for a few hours and then do it all over again. i've been doing this for almost a week and i am now wart free! with in the first day or two the wart turned black and the size of it was reduced, and then tonight i was picking at it and the black scaby thing just fell off and no more wart!

thank you so much everyone who has posted their remedies and comments here! it is soo helpful! i am a firm believer in the healing powers of ACV! it truly works!

Lemon

Posted by Judy (Denver, CO) on 06/13/2009
★★★★★

Seed warts on hands...

Just read about banana peels getting rid of warts. I have a cleaner remedy for seed warts on the hands. I started getting these seed (tiny) warts when I was 15. I tried a few OTC remedies that didn't work. By the time I was 45 all the first three (largest)knuckles on both hands were covered by one big wart. One bled sometimes. I finallly talked to my doctor about them and he said to wait until he got his lazer because they were too deep. In the meantime, I attended a seminar put on by a master herbalist and someone in the audience asked what to do about seed warts. She said to take the inside of a lemon rind and rub them each night and in less than a week they'd be gone. I tried it on my left hand first and to my amazement, they started to fade with the first application. After five nights they were gone and and skin was as normal as if I'd never hand them. Then, because I've read that sometimes they go away on their own, I tried the right hand, one finger at a time and the same thing happened. One by one, the warts went away as I did each finger, and they've never returned. And I lived with those ugly things for 30 years and lemon rind got rid of them in no time. I don't know if it works on any other type of wart.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Holly (Chicago Suburbs, IL USA) on 05/31/2009
★★★★★

I had a plantar wart on the bottom of my heel for many years (at least 7-8 years). I used OTC treatments that would seem to work at first, but would never completely get rid of it and it would just grow back.

Years later during a doctor appointment I brought it up, hoping to get it treated once and for all. It was a new doctor for me, and I was shocked when she actually gave me a home remedy to try instead (yea doctor!) - duct tape (plus pumice stone to remove dead skin). She said it would take months, but would suffocate the wart (or something like that). Instead it seemed to kill some skin around it. One time I removed the tape months into the treatment, and it tore into the skin around the wart instead...yet I still saw a small white ball intact in that deeper layer of the skin (surely the wart). I gave up on that home remedy.

A couple years later at another doctor appointment (late last year), I brought it up again with a different doctor (HMOs, sigh). First she tried the freezing treatment, but after 3 visits it barely phased the wart (if at all). Since it's an HMO, I had to wait for a referral to a dermatologist after that (it took about 2 weeks to finally get it).

During that waiting time, I finally discovered the ACV REMEDY on this site, so I never went to the derm at all. I was seeing FAST results in the first week, so I had much hope. Most of it was gone within 2 weeks, but for months after I went back and forth with treatment never knowing whether it was all gone. I think the plantar warts grow deeper than other warts and are probably harder to get rid of. I came to the conclusion that as long as I can still see any specks of skin darkening (black/brown/dark red) where the wart was during my treatment, then it is still there. Keep treating it.

MY TREATMENT DETAILS:

I want to note that I DID use the grocery store ACV. That is generally not recommended for ACV remedies. In my opinion, ACV taken internally should definitely be with "the mother", but maybe not necessarily for external remedies (or at least for warts) if you can't easily get an organic brand with the mother.

I used cotton from a Q-tip (that was enough to cover my wart), dipped it in ACV, and covered it with a couple band-aids (like an "X", to prevent ACV from leaking outside the band-aid). I would usually do this around bedtime and remove it in the morning. I have also done it during the day if I missed a treatment, but it's probably better (or at least easier) to do when you won't be on your feet a lot, plus you can make use of the hours of down time while sleeping. In the early stages, I could feel a little pain sometimes, but it would never seem to last long or be that noticeable. Overall, no real problem with that. When the wart turns dark (black/brown/dark red), that is a good sign.

Eventually the dead skin has to be removed/scraped. Sometimes it comes off easily, but it becomes more challenging if you have to keep going deeper. Pumice stone would probably be safest, but it seems hard to keep clean. I used a less safe method, which was to scrape with the side of an exacto razor blade (cleaned with rubbing alcohol). It worked well, but it is sharp, and I can't say I never ended up with a cut or two no matter how careful I tried to be.

It was hard to tell when the wart was completely gone. When I could not see the ACV having anymore effect on the skin during treatments, especially when there were no more specks becoming darkened, that's when I believed it was really gone. I am monitoring just in case, and will retreat if needed. So far so good after a few weeks.

Either way, I definitely accept this as a very effective, safe, and cheap wart remedy!

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Robin (Macomb, Michigan) on 05/31/2009

question about removing tattoo naturally: I have an old tattoo on my arm and was wondering if ACV would remove it since it works on moles i was wondering if anyone has tried it or if theres anything else i can try? Thanks!

EC: We don't have a tattoo removal page, so your question is going on the mole removal page for now! If this topic proves to be a popular subject, will add a new page.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Kat (Washington DC) on 05/24/2009
★★★☆☆

BETTER BUT WITH SIDE EFFECTS

I am treating my flat hand warts (on the back of my hand) with ACV. The ACV seems to be working. The warts turned into a scab, and in about 1.5 weeks 2 of the scabs have fallen off and left pink skin. My concern is that when I would remove the bandages in the morning, I would find that I had new warts (where the adhesive portion of the bandaid had been). It seems that the warts are contagious when they are being treated. Is there any way I can treat the warts without causing new ones to pop up? Has anyone had this problem, and how did you resolve it?

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by John (San Marcos, California) on 05/19/2009
★★★★★

I read the accounts of ACV curing warts and decided to try it. Previously I had tried different treatments but they actually would reduce the wart but then it would grow back even larger. Anyway I started soaking a small piece of cotton in ACV and placing this like a poultice over the wart and then place a bandaid on top to hold it. I would change this for a new application every 12 hours. Within a couple of days the wart started to turn whitish and then black. After about 4 days about half of the wart was black and simply peeled off when I removed the bandaid one evening. I continued with the same results. The wart had originally been about 3/16" to 1/8" above the level of my skin. Now, if there is any of it left, it is flush with the surrounding skin. There was no pain during this whole process except for some minor irritation during the second or third day. All in all this seems to be a safe, effective method for dealing with warts.

I started on 05/09/09 so the whole process (for me) took about 10 days. Hope this helps.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Belinda (San Antonio, TX) on 05/12/2009
★★★★★

Apple Cider Vinegar cured my wart on my forehead. I tried banana peels (fresh and frozen), aspirin, duct tape, garlic oil, garlic juice, sliced garlic, potato peels and oregano oil...none of them worked. The ACV got rid of the wart on top of the skin in 3 days. Then I let the scab heal and applied ACV for another 3 days to get rid of the portion under the skin (it was a pretty large wart). Just saturated a little piece of cotton ball with ACV and used a band-aid to hold it on the wart and changed it morning and night. I'm so pleased! I read about the ACV on this website. Thanks everybody!!!

ACV, Banana Peel, Duct Tape

Posted by David (New York, New York) on 05/11/2009
★★★★★

Used a banana peel/acv "one two" combo with duct tape for a wart. Here's the story. I've had a wart on my forehead for maybe a year and a half. In the beginning i just thought it was a pimple i couldn't get rid of. And because it grew so slowly i was adjusting psychologically to its presence and not doing anything, but finally, i'm like, it's huge and ugly, it's on my forehead, it's a WART, and i'm getting rid of it, somehow. Didn't want to spend a lot of money, so went on the net, found you guys. I went with the ripe banana peel inverted, pressed and sealed over the wart with duct type. I'd rub the peel liberally on it first. Did that for a night and a day, not removing the duct tape except once to put in a new peel. Then browsing around on your site, got curious about apple cider vinegar as cure-all ingestant, so went and out got that (along with some OP sesame oil just for giggles). So then, changing the banana dressing, knowing that ACV was the other popular wart cure and that i had some right in front of me, i took a q-tip, dipped it in the ACV, then jammed it at the wart, for a few minutes (By the way, I wasn't positive that the peel had done much by this point but thought not to judge from the short amount of time). Felt a nice burn, which i enjoyed. If there's pain, there's death. Cause the thing's gotta die, right? But anyway... Then i rubbed a new banana peel on it, and put the duct tape on, and went to bed. Next morning, i noticed the thing was irritated, red and uglier than usual. I put another banana peel with duct tape on. In the afternoon, i'm like, "you know... i liked that BURN from the ACV. Let's do that now." So i repeated my q-tip ACV application for a few minutes. Then i dipped another q-tip in the ACV, this time cut the end of it with scissors, cut it small enough for it to just cover the wart area, placed it on the wart and duct taped it over. Going to bed, vigorously rubbed banana peel on wart, then duct taped wart over ACV'd q-tip (no peel). Waking up, I did banana peel. [SORRY THIS IS BORING BUT IT'S ALMOST OVER]. Evening, I looked at thing, it had shrunk, was red and black. Decided to hit it with ACV. Tested it with my fingernail to see if there was any dead stuff to slough off, and then the thing started bleeding, slowly but non-stop. So for like a half-hour, i q-tipped it with ACV until it stopped bleeding, then duct taped it over another ACV'd cut q-tip for the night. I'd planned to see some friends, but not happening! Next morning (yesterday, actually), I looked at it, knew I'd won. It was black and laying flat just below surface skin level, like a mesa, unlike the protrusive mass it was before. Pressing on it, I felt a soreness, but in the healthy normal skin encasing it, not the wart itself. It was dead. I decided to just slap some duct tape on it without anything for the rest of the day and night. Now it's today, the next day, and I've removed the duct tape, so the area will dry out and hopefully the wart will fall out, no reason why it shouldn't, it's not living after all! heheh :)

Some thoughts: Obviously, i just followed my whims with this treatment, using what i read here as a guide. The banana peel definitely had a less aggressive feel. Don't know if it would have worked on its own. One thing I notice is that the immediately surrounding skin looks great. Really pink, plump and healthy. Maybe there's a facial in it for the girls out there (and boys ;p)

Finally: The site is very cool. Thanks a lot to you people for making it happen. One problem or question: People here really seem to be into "oil-pulling". I'm now in the process of trying it from having visited here. Thing is, i've looked all over the web including on this site to find any rational explanation of how it works, and have just drawn blanks from my perspective. How does it detoxify? HOW? All you see written is that it "pulls" toxins out. Okay, how does "that" work? Or that a doctor from India told some Ukrainian doctors that it works and if they don't believe him, try it for themselves. I understand fasting for detox. Makes perfect sense: Body gets overloaded with toxins, can't process them out of the system, meaning they stay in. Stop food intake, body gets a break to process out the toxins. But "oil-pulling"? Well, i'm trying it, but without a better explanation i'm skeptical it's not just placebo. Would be interested in anyone's thoughts on the subject.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Linda (Treorchy, Rhondda, South Wales) on 05/07/2009
★★★★★

Apple Cider Vinegar Cured my 9 year old daughters Wart! Megs had a wart on her finger for about 2 years. Only little, and it didn't cause her any discomfort, but she is now at that age when these things are starting to bother her. I didn't want to go down the route of chemicle "cures" from the Chemist, so one evening I soaked a tiny piece of cotton wool with neat Raw Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, and placed it over her finger and stuck a couple of waterproof plasters on it. After 2 days the plaster came off whilst she was at dance class. First thing I noticed was that the wart had gone from a little whiteish lump, to a flat black spot. As we had run out of water proof plasters (and they did make writing difficult for her) we decided to leave it as is was until school breaks up for Whitson. However last night theh little black spot detached it self from her finger, leaving behind a lovely fresh pink finger, as far as wer can see.... no wart!

White Vinegar

Posted by Jack (Santa Barbara, CA) on 05/02/2009
★★★★★

I tried the banana peel cure and after several weeks the cure did not seem to be working so I moved on to using white vinegar, which completely cured me in about two weeks. The pH of the vinegar may be the source of the cure. I had used salicylic acid for about 4 months before trying either cure and while it removed the wart the wart kept coming back from the roots.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Chris (Sacramento, CA) on 04/20/2009
★★★★★

My son had a wart on his finger. Tried every over the counter products to remove it. Was told about apple cider vinger to remove the wart. We soaked a small piece of cotton with ACV and applied it to the wart and wraped it with a bandaid, changing every second day. Within ten days the wart fell off. Worked great.

Vitamin E

Posted by M (SF, CA) on 04/19/2009

We (the ones that are believers in in FACTUAL remedies)... believe you.....NOT! Nothing happens overnight. Try again.

Vitamin E

Posted by Anna (Philadelphia, pa, usa) on 04/17/2009
★★★★★

Vitamin E worked wonderfully for my son, then in grade shool. He had a huge wart at the top of right palm.One evening he was really sick of it so before bedtime I just squeezed content of one vit E 400 capsule. He put sock on his hand not to stain bed sheets. In the morning there was no trace of it.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by John (Spokane, washington, USA) on 04/14/2009
★★★★★

Plantar Wart Cure: Applied ACV to a cotton ball, and placed cotton ball on about 3 in. of duct tape and placed it on the wart on my foot. 3 days later wart came off while I was rubbing the area. This is a wonderful idea.