Verruca or viral warts are found on the bottom of the feet, and they are usually caused by the human papilloma virus. They tend to disappear on their own without leaving a scar in a 2-year period but if you want remove verruca quicker there are a few options that could be tried. This application can include cryotherapy which is the use of liquid nitrogen, application of wart paint and the method of occlusive wrapping using duct tape.

According to the NHS, if you decide to choose this treatment using duct tape otherwise known as occlusive wrapping, it should be applied as follows:

• Grab a piece of duct tape and cut it into the correct size to cover your wart.
• Place the tape over the wart and leave it in place for 6 days. If the piece of tape falls off, grab a new piece and cover it again as soon as possible.
• At the end of this period, remove the tape and soak the area of skin with the wart in warm water and rub the wart with a pumice stone to remove any dead skin.
• Leave the wart alone overnight without the tape then restart the whole process again with the duct tape the next day.
• Keep doing this cycle for a 2 month period or until the wart goes.

The benefit of using this method is that the wart will disappear a lot more quickly than it would if no treatment was involved. According to a study done in 2002, they concluded that the occlusion of warts with duct tapes was considerably more effective than treatment of cryotherapy. 85% of patients treated with duct tape cleared compared to 60% with cryotherapy.*

* Reference: Focht DR, Spicer C, Farchok M P. The efficacy of duct tape versus cryotherapy in the treatment of verruca vulgaris (the common wart). Arch Pediatr Med 2002; Vol 156, Pg 971- 974

There are also risks to this as this may cause skin irritation from the glue in the tape. Pain around the wart may arise due to rubbing down on hard skin.

The downside to using this technique is that it may cause skin irritation from the glue used in the tape as well may experience small pain around the wart while rubbing down on the hard skin.

If you require more information regarding dealing with verruca using duct tapes use the NHS website or this link here: https://www.wwl.nhs.uk/media/.leaflets/5fdb388f0f5623.15599860.pdf

GTSE Duct Tape available for removing verruca

Our tapes are water resistant, highly adhesive and leaves no residue or in other words we think they are the best duct tapes to get rid of your verruca. This is one of the weird and wonderful uses of duct tapes.

Our duct tapes are available in white, black, silver and red they can be found here.