16 Natural Remedies for Warts–Including a Crazy One That REALLY Works!
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Are you burdened by a stubborn wart? Here’s an assortment of natural remedies for warts, including one unbelievable one that really worked!
Would YOU try it?
I’m always on the hunt for natural remedies to treat ear infections, sinus infections, headaches, and more.
I’m just not a fan of prescription meds, or even OTC medications, mainly since one of the things that contributed to my health issues (including candida) is the overuse of meds and antibiotics in general.
So when warts surfaced in our home, I was not about to just run to the store to get an OTC wart remover – and I for sure wasn’t ready to pay $30 (how did it get that high?!) for a physician copay to have it removed from my son’s foot.
Warts are not a pleasant topic.
If you’ve ever had a wart, you know how hard it can be to get rid of it.
And it’s worse if you’ve got more than one wart. Once they start spreading they can really be tough to get rid of.
About 1 month ago I was helping my youngest get changed for bed. I don’t remember now what happened or why I noticed it, but I saw two small “somethings” on the sole of his foot, near the heel.
I wouldn’t have thought much of them, except for the fact that I remembered having a plantar’s wart when I was a young girl.
It was painful and it took a long time to get rid of it.
I think we went to the store and got an over-the-counter wart remover and I applied it over and over again.
And they’re gross.
Back to my son.
I took a closer look at his foot and scraped a little of the surface off of the skin.
It felt hard underneath, and I could see the tell-tale little brownish-black dots in the center of a pattern.
The dots are called wart seeds sometimes, but they really are little blood clots.
Blech.
Anyway, he clearly had two of them.
Then, my son showed me a “callus” on his toe.
Hmmmm…..
It was a big one. But was it really a callus?
I went to the internet and found a site with great diagnostic information to find out if he had a callus or wart on his foot.
How to Know If You Have a Wart or a Callus
To tell know if you have a wart or callus, you will need to press down on the thing (whatever it is) and find out when you have pain.
- If it hurts pushing straight down on it–it’s a callus.
- If it hurts putting pressure on the sides (by squeezing it)–it’s a wart.
Sure enough, we had a wart. No pain pressing down, but when I squeezed it, my son wasn’t happy.
Now it was time to try to get rid of warts.
Time to Get Rid of the Wart
A long time ago, we had tried using oregano oil before on a wart on my husband’s finger.
One day we were on a road trip. I put the oregano oil on it and within 3 hours it went from being a raised wart to being level with the rest of his skin.
It really worked great for a natural wart remedy, but we weren’t consistent enough to get rid of it, so it’s still there.
So I tried the oregano oil on my son’s foot for several days.
Again, I wasn’t consistent enough and no surprise–nothing happened.
I really wanted to be consistent with the oregano oil, but life was getting in the way.
So I hopped back on the internet and even asked my fans on my Facebook page for their ideas. (hop on over there if you haven’t already, K?)
Well, let me tell you, there were loads of ideas….
Natural Remedies for Warts
Following are some remedies that others suggested, plus some others that we didn’t get to try.
OTC Topical Treatments
(not going there again)
Super Glue
Doesn’t sounds very healthy to me.
Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
I did this once for a wart on my hand. It ended up burning the surrounding skin and was super painful.
Banana Peel
The inside of the peel. It turns out that the inside of the banana peel has some kind of enzyme that can help address warts.
Cutting
Some people try to just cut their own warts off (Not an option. No way.)
Removal By a Physician
Sounds like a good option, but I’ve read over and over that the wart often comes back. This was the case for one of my son’s friends.
Thuja
Thuja Oil, Thuja Extract, or Thuja Homeopathic pellets. A reader mentioned that this worked well, but I haven’t tried it yet.
Vapor Rub
It’s true. Some people report that using Vicks® or a Homemade Vapor Rub works great for addressing warts.
Tea Tree Oil
I didn’t try this one, but a friend told me that she tried it and it worked great!
Echaveria
One reader wrote in to say that this plant, also known as the common garden ‘hens and chickens’ and often grown in succulent gardens and rock gardens. Simply break off a leaf and squeeze the juice onto the wart morning and night!
Garlic
One reader mentioned that a slice of garlic on the wart worked well. That makes sense since warts are caused by a virus and garlic is antiviral.
Milkweed
Milkweed juice applied daily has been reported to help with warts.
Milk Thistle Extract
Since milk thistle is also antiviral this has been successful for some as well.
Basil
This is another antiviral plant that works for some to get rid of warts. You can crush a few leaves of fresh basil and rub the paste on the warts, or apply the crushed leaves over the warts and cover that with medical or duct tape.
Aspirin
The main ingredient in aspirin is salicylic acid, the main ingredient in wart remover. One reader told me that putting a paste of aspirin on the wart for 2-3 days with tape over it caused the wart to come off and never return!
and other concoctions of all sorts. However one option really caught my eye.
Urine.
Yeppers. You all remember my post on natural ear infection remedies, right?
Well, at the time I tried that in my son’s ear (of course, after reading all over the internet that urine therapy has been used by many cultures for many years and there was even an international convention on it–so don’t think I’m just so crazy that I’ll try anything that I read on the internet–’cause I’m not), I was already trying this on my son’s warts.
But I wasn’t sure if it was going to take care of the more stubborn ones so I didn’t want to share it yet.
Well, now you can see how well this natural wart remedy worked and judge for yourself.
How to Use Urine on a Wart
Basically you just urinate in a cup, put the urine on a small piece of cotton ball or pad.
Squeeze to remove the excess.
Put the soaked pad or cotton ball on the wart.
Cut medical tape in the appropriate size to cover the wart and the cotton. At least you need the cotton to stay put.
Repeat daily.
We did this for a few weeks. It would have gone faster if I’d remembered to change the cotton daily, but sometimes I forgot.
But every day we noticed an obvious change in the big wart.
This is what his toe looked like after the “pee pee treatment” was done!
All gone except for some peeling skin.
And the other warts are gone as well.
Even while we were treating the first 3, one more showed up on the other foot (lovely) and that one is gone as well.
Now, I am thinking the oregano oil would have worked if I had been more diligent, but I would forget sometimes and frankly, urine is a lot cheaper.
But if you’re squeemish about the urine therapy, then hop over to Rocky Mountain Oils and get some oregano oil. It’s great stuff and is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. I’ve even heard of folks treating MRSA successfully with it. Now that’s something to have on hand, you know?
If you’re curious about what essential oils company I recommend, you can read my series on Which Essential Oils Company is Best.
One Amazing Testimonial About Urine on a Wart
But I tried the urine also because the testimonials were so emphatic.
One was even pretty hilarious.
A man said his whole family had been plagued by plantar warts–except for him.
He thought it was because he had the habit of urinating in the shower, so he thought his feet were getting a natural anti-wart treatment every day.
I don’t know, but interesting, huh?
Urine Therapy for Warts–Is It Crazy?
Likely you think this is just gross and NUTS, right?
Well, check out this book – it’s got some very nice reviews.
I say – if you can get things done naturally and inexpensively then it’s worth looking at :).
Another Great Option
A lot of people get great results with Rowe Casa’s Feet and Nail Salve. It’s full of antiviral ingredients. Check out the reviews. You’ll see a lot of positive results on warts and fungus too!
Which of these Natural Remedies for Warts will you try?
I’m looking for anything to help with my several warts I have on my fingers. I just started a new job and would hate to pay a co pay for them to only come right back. However I don’t really want to let urine sit on my fingers, but I’m on a very tight budget.I’ve tried everything from synthetic acid to the bandaids with medicine on them yet nothing seems to help. Does anyone know of anything else that would work that doesn’t cost much that I could use? This all started from one Wart more showed up the more I picked at them and the more I tried treating them. Please help.
Sorry about that. I would look through the comments and try whatever you think might work based on others’ experiences and of course keeping safety in mind.
I was also very upset with the planatar warts and mosaic warts for more than a year. I have searched on all the internet about its treatment. finally i got the solution and my mosaic warts disappear and the planatar wart is about to disappear. I have used cotton swab dipped in white vinegar(non diluted) in the morning and wrap it with duct tape (since, I am from india, I have used brown tape) and do the office for 2-3 days until the white skin came out around the warts and remove it during the shower or after shower. After that I used coldpressed pure castor oil, repeat the treatment same as with vinegar. After a week or two, you will notice the change. Don’t stick the time duration of 2-3 days, observe the warts closely. I hope it works. Let me know if anyone gets benefit from that.
Hi Emily, I had a few warts in my lifetime and have frozen off two, and had one cut out (when I was a kid) but the most recent one on my finger was very stubborn. The freeze away kits were not working. So I tried the milk of a fig tree leaf when you first break it off the stem. I’d just walk out to the yard and pluck off a leaf and hold the milk on there for about a minute or so. I did that maybe twice a week for two weeks and it was gone! Painless and inexpensive- free! Maybe if you don’t have any fig trees, you could see if a neighbor or friend would let you break off a few leaves. I’m presently trying to cure my husband’s wart with oregano but the fresh fig tree “milk” was a sure fire thing and I definitely recommend it.
No kidding. I don’t think fig trees are that common, but….
I have used the milky sap from pointsetta plants and that works well. I keep the plants from Christmas. I also have a fig tree, they are very common in the southeast US. I have read (somewhere) that the milky sap from any plant works.
Interesting! Thanks so much for sharing!
Hi Emily! I had 3 warts on my finger. What worked for me was a Thieves Oil blend. I used an MLM’s EO at first but then switched to RMO’s version. I was pretty consistent using it but sometimes I would switch it up with Oregano Oil. It took a few months but they are completely gone and haven’t come back. Other treatments I tried were OTC freezing and general wart removal products as well as duct tape. Some mild success with all of those, but they always came back 🙁 I have before and after photos as well but not sure how to post here. Don’t give up!
I had one big wart on my foot for years that didn’t respond to my once off freezing treatments or salicylic acid. It wasn’t until two more smaller ones popped up next to it that I decided to research and make it my mission to get rid of them. This is what I did and they were gone in about 10 days:
Before bed every night
1. Bathe the foot for ten minutes in warm soapy water to soften skin.
2. Use a micropedi to file down the wart gently. I like the battery operated roller pedis because they are gentle but effective.
3. Freeze the wart with a home wart freeze kit. I used Wartner but it didn’t work on its own. Only when I used it in this sequence. You don’t have to do this step every night. The instructions on the box advise not to use more than once within a two week period but I froze it about 3 times during the ten days.
4. Dip a little cotton wool in apple cider vinegar, place it over the wart and secure with a plaster (of everything I had tried before, it was my first time trying apple cider vinegar and I think this was a key step).
In the morning
1. Bathe the foot and dry.
2. File with a micro pedi.
3. put a drop of salicylic acid on the wart and allow to dry.
4. Cover with a piece of duct tape and leave it there until you go to bed
After about a week of doing this I found I would wake up in the middle of the night with an ache in my foot and I could feel a lot of heat coming from where the wart was. some nights I had to even take the apple cider vinegar soaked pad off my foot because it got too painful. After ten days it fell out and left a little hole in my foot but with new healed skin underneath.
Note that I did one wart at a time so I completed this process 3 times but after years of worrying about people seeing my feet, the month of intense treatment was totally worth it.
J……….Are you sure you didn’t have a well established Corn? I remember clearly my mother doing this for my brother when he was just a child (I am 75 and he was 4 years younger) it was around 70 years ago. My family was from Croatia, it’s funny how home remedies get carried from one country to another.
Interesting!
We have used potatoes to get rid of warts. You simply cut the potato and rub the flesh side on the wart. To speed up the process, I would cut a tiny piece of the potato flesh (just large enough to cover the wart) then place it on the wart and cover with a bandaid or piece of tape to hold it in place and leave it on over night. The warts would turn black in a day or so and then be gone within a couple of weeks.
Sarah, is the potatoes only applied to the wart one time? Then u just wait for it to go away or is the potatoes applied more than once? TIA
One trip to have them frozen and cut off worked for me as a child. I was in ballet and got them on both feet. There were two draw backs. First the doctor did both feet at the same time then expected me to walk. Second I have permanent puffy places of the sides of my feet just behind the arch.
Also it hurt really bad, the freezing part.
That is why I am searching the internet now. I have one on the curve of my thumb and I don’t want it frozen. It has been there for about 5 years. I cut it down with finger nail clippers from time to time.
After reading this I will try the orange oil.
Thanks for writing this.
Hope it works!
Urine also works very effectively to treat athletes foot.
Years ago a pediatrician told me about this: You can easily get rid of the ones on the feet by soaking in very warm water (as hot as is comfortable). When my children were small kids and had warts on their feet a couple times, we just soaked them while they were sitting at the kitchen table doing homework/reading/eating breakfast. We did this once or twice a day for maybe 15-20 min and the warts were completely gone in a couple weeks. Apparently hot water can kill the plantar wart virus.
No kidding! Fascinating. Of course you need time to soak feet and have kids who will sit still :).
No offense but I can’t believe you would make your child cover their skin in piss instead of paying a 30 dollar co payment for a doctor who could freeze it off in one visit. There is such a thing as being too cheap.
Hi Alison. Thanks for commenting. Well, if you read the comments, many who had their warts frozen off had them return. Ours have not returned. I personally think this isn’t a big deal and many of the commenters agree. Thanks again.
Way to not feed the troll!!! I have been plagued by them on and off for years and they gave always come back after freezing them. I am definitely going to give the urine a try! Thank you!!
I hope it works! Please do share – and thank you!
Hi again, Alison. I just approved another comment where the mother has had to return the doctor once a week to have her child’s warts frozen. Here is the text:
“My son started with one plantar wart on the ball of his foot. He now has 3. Once a week I take him to the doctor and he puts liquid nitrogen on them. The oldest wart is making progress but it’s still there the other two are fairly new and barely noticeable. I have also been putting on oregano oil on them. I think I will get him to try the urine trick though. He’s 13 and very active.”
So we could be talking multiple visits. Hope this helps as well.
Frozen off in one visit…HAHA! I went repeatedly and cost me a lot. Oh I forgot to mention, I have more now than I did when I started. I’ve had at least two since I was in high school (I’m 36 now) and they never got worse or better, just always there. They went away for almost a year when I was pregnant but then came right back and multiplied. The dermoyologist said I would need to keep coming back till they are gone and surgery wasn’t an option because there were too many and I would be in a lot of pain. So here I sit, doing consistent attenpts with OTC products out of sheer hopeless routine. I might just try this, in hopes that SOMETHING might be my answer! (Hahahaha one visit?!?!?!)
Ugh. So sorry you have had to go through that and thanks for sharing. I’ve heard this over and over again.
I have had a plantars wart on my foot and my finger. I read somewhere to use oregano oil. I had tried everything. doctors froze it, didn’t work. tried over the counter stuff… all of them did work, in fact it made them bigger. I used the oregano oil and it took a few weeks but its almost gone… would put it on a band aid and a drop directly onto wart. after a bath or soak first when skin is soft. kept it on all day, and changed at night. glad to say its almost gone… give it a try..
Cheap isn’t the issue… I spent a bunch trying to freeze mine off my heel… did it work no actuallyit got bigger… apple cider vinegar works! Took a few week, I left it on 24/7, and was painful at times but worked and costed me $3.
My daughter’s multiplied every time she went.
I’ve had my son to the doctor 3 times now and even ask them to put an extra shot of nitrogen on it and they do…Still has the nasty thing now my daughter has one. They are hard to get rid of, I agree Urine sounds awful but if it’s on the foot and you have done everything else, I’m all for the all natural! Just saying…..
Alison,
I used to get planters warts when the was around 7 years old. I always had them burned off at the doctor’s office. My most painful experiences have been my broken femur, a bone graft where they hammered, cut and chiseled bone out of my hip and screwed it onto my tibia, a completely dislocated knee where my tibia was on top of my femur, and getting warts burned off.
Also many medical practitioners instruct patients to urinate on their feet in the shower to get rid of athletes foot.
Urine is sterile as it leaves the body. If you are in a survival situation drinking your own urine is known by almost everyone to keep yourself alive.
Lastly, if you use hair removal cream like Nair you are wiping urea all over your body.
So before you judge a mother, you should educate yourself before you prove to the world that you are ignorant. 🙂
I didn’t know that about urine and athlete’s foot. Interesting.
Alison I have had plantar warts for 19 years. Unfortunately my body doesn’t reject the virus possibly because I have another auto-immune condition as well. I have tried everything over the years including freezing at the GP. You don’t simply go once but every week for months. Still doesn’t work after lots of pain and effort and cost if not bulk billed. Now I go for laser surgery once a year at great expense and horrendous pain. Willing to give anything a go. Maybe think before you speak next time.
The dermatologist recommended to take L-Methionine supplement and put wild orange oil on my grandson’s wart which was near his lip (a place you might not want to use urine). She suggested that she did not want to remove it due to scarring. Within a few weeks it was completely gone. I was totally shocked that a person trained in western medicine would recommend such a natural cure that worked so completely. This may be a better solution for people with warts all over their hands that might not be good candidates for the urine method..
Interesting – thanks!
Hi. I saw your post about your grandson’s wart solution. Can you tell me what the dosage of the L-methionine was? My son weighs 125lb. Also did you cover the area after you applied the essential oil? Did you use duct tape at all? Really hoping for a remedy. Thank you for your help.
I have small white wharts between and under my breasts. I tried lemon juice and vinegar on cotton wool at night and again in the morning. The warts started disappearing, but I think it was the vinegar that burnt my skin.
I have now started using Justine’s Tissue Oil which I know is available in South Africa and Australia (not sure about New Zealand). The strangest thing was that all the “white” warts are still there, but a big raised flesh coloured wart under my breast, has disappeared. This Tissue Oil has many uses and my mother-in-law told me years ago that I should tell all my clients about Tissue Oil because she used to smooth it on her face and all the warts on her face disappeared. I think I will next try the urine on my warts :-))
I hope it works for you!
My son started with one plantar wart on the ball of his foot. He now has 3. Once a week I take him to the doctor and he puts liquid nitrogen on them. The oldest wart is making progress but it’s still there the other two are fairly new and barely noticeable. I have also been putting on oregano oil on them. I think I will get him to try the urine trick though. He’s 13 and very active.
Hope it works for you!
Oregano oil is absolutely the way to go and it’s natural… Second option is to take a clove of garlic and mash it with fork place on wart cover with bandaid overnight.. It will burn a little and the form a small red blister but it will heal and be gone!!!
I did Oregano oil overnight with a bandaid. It was gone by the more. I used Nature’s Alchemy.
Every time the doctor froze them, she got more.
Try onion. Just cut an onion and rub it on your warts. I use this for my son. In about a week or two it will dry up. Every time you rub it with onion just make sure it’s a fresh slice so the juice gets on your warts. Hope it works for you.
I had a huge wart on my finger for about 3 years. It was embarrassing. I tried everything- went to docs, whatever they tried didn’t work.
So I went for more natural methods. The best wart treatment I found was: as well as oregano oil, rub freshly squeezed lemon juice onto the wart as well. apply both twice a day (morning and evening) and pick it off from there. After 3 years, it went away after about a week. Good luck.
Thanks and glad it worked for you!