Duct Tape … A Homemade Verruca Remedy

Just over a week ago my eldest ticked one more item off the infamous ‘Things I Will Catch When I’m Young’ list. This time we have entered the world of verrucas. And it’s an impressively large one!

Mr Dad as usual went into panic mode, found the nearest pharmacy that opened at silly o’clock in the morning and drove off with my eldest to get some advice from the wise pharmacist. My non-alarmist chat about verrucas being very common, nothing to get stressed about, the need to buy some Bazuka (I know my adverts) and more plasters fell on deaf ears.

So I poured another cup of coffee, sat down with RaRa & RoRo and waited. Half an hour later Mr Dad arrived back at home with some plasters, a tube of Bazuka and his usual gripe about the pharmacist being ‘no help what so ever’.

Yesterday I took Eldest off to the doctors and learnt that verrucas can take 3-6 months to disappear. Possibly longer! If you’re really lucky they can come back in a different place (oh the joy) and that duct tape (yes that grey sticky hard core tape) can get rid of them. Seriously, who’d have believed it? So as suggested I looked online and yes, there it was … ‘duct tape occlusion therapy’.

It would seem that by covering the verruca with a piece of duct tape for a couple of months (replacing when it falls off) the verruca disappears. In some cases improvements can be seen within weeks. How amazing is that? The method varies depending on where you read about it but it generally follow along the lines of

• Cover the verruca with Duct Tape for about six days
• Remove tape and soak in warm water
• Use disposable emery board to rub away the dead skin
• Leave to dry overnight and then cover with more tape
• Repeat as necessary until the verruca disappears

As to be expected it’s had mixed feedback from the medical profession with some studies showing great success and others showing little success. But there were enough positive stories on various forums to get my interest. The skeptic in me doesn’t trust the negative articles and posts. There’s a lot of money wrapped up in the verruca. If duct tape is a winner, think how much money would be lost! I can imagine Mr Bazuka choking on his coffee when the first study of Duct Tape vs. Verruca was plonked down in front of him.

In my mind we’ve got nothing to lose. If it works it’s a lot quicker, much cheaper and won’t damage the skin. So I now have a large roll of duct tape next to me waiting for when my eldest get’s home.

Oh and I also read that it can be used to cover gun shot and knife wounds until you can get medical assistance … sounds like one to add to the medical travel kit!

Edit To Say

It worked! It really did. After two and a half months of my eldest wearing a big silver plaster the verruca peeled off one day as we went to take the tape off. It’s one of those moments when you wished you’d had a camcorder present. There was quite a big hole left in her toe but it didn’t bleed and very quickly healed over.