The short answer: Having tried a number of different methods to get rid of my verrucas, I found that super glue was the best way of getting rid of verrucas. If you can’t be bothered to read the entire article, skip to the section below titled ‘Using Super Glue To Get Rid Of A Verruca‘ for more details.
I had a small verruca for years and years, it didn’t cause any discomfort, so I didn’t spend much time & effort trying to get rid of it.
When I joined a David Lloyd health and leisure club which has swimming pools and a spa area, I got another verruca. This new verruca was located on a part of my foot that did cause quite a bit of discomfort when I walked…..it had to go!
What Is A Verruca
I’m sure that most people, in basic terms, know what a verruca is. If you want more information on what a verruca is, I recommend you visit the NHS warts and verrucas web page.
What Does A verruca Look Like
A verruca typically looks like a small, rough lesion on the bottom of the foot. It may have a cauliflower-like appearance and can sometimes have black dots or pinpoints, which are small clotted blood vessels. It may feel grainy to the touch, and the skin lines of the foot may go around the verruca.
Verrucas can be painful when pressure is applied, such as when standing or walking, due to their location on weight-bearing areas of the foot.
Unlike warts on other body parts, verrucas are often flat or slightly sunken into the skin because of the pressure from walking and standing.
Methods Of Getting Rid Of A Verruca
1) Salicylic Acid To Get Rid Of Verrucas
One of the most popular salicylic acid products for removing verrucas and warts in the UK is Bazuka Extra Strength.
I used Bazuka on my verrucas for ages (I’d guess about 3 months) and found that it did make both verrucas get much smaller, but I eventually lost patience and gave up using it.
If I had continued using the salicylic acid, I think it would have eventually got rid of the verrucas, but it was just taking so long.
Negatives Of Using Salicylic (Bazuka)
- Unless you’re incredibly careful applying the salicylic acid, It damages healthy skin around the verruca. My skin did fully heal, so only a short-term side effect.
- The Bazuka gel takes about 5 minutes to dry, which is a bit inconvenient.
- The Bazuka gel dries white. This means that everyone who sees the soles of your feet (e.g. at a swimming pool) knows you have verrucas.
2) Freezing Verrucas To Get Rid Of Them
Shortly after I stopped using the Salicylic acid, I tried freezing my verrucas off using Scholl Verruca and Wart Remover Freeze Treatment.
Because I had been attacking my verrucas with the Bazuka gel previously, I felt that an onslaught of freezing was bound to get rid of my verrucas. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t work on either of my verrucas.
I thought freezing my verrucas would be a painful experience, but it did not hurt that much. I’d say the first time freezing was the most uncomfortable, and both verrucas were a little sore for a few hours. The following applications of the freeze treatment didn’t cause any discomfort.
However, there was one time that I was freezing my verruca when it suddenly really stung, I’m not sure why this happened as I was applying as I normally had been, strange.
I applied the freezing treatment using the maximum time of 40 seconds on each verruca. I did this 4 times (until the can was empty) on each verruca.
Because I had been using the Bazuka gel before using the freezing treatment, it was hard to tell what freezing had done to the verrucas. All I know for certain is it didn’t get rid of them.
3) Using Duct Tape To Get Rid Of Warts
After I gave up on freezing my verrucas, I started looking at alternative methods of getting rid of verrucas. One method I saw mentioned online a lot was the duct tape method.
Steps To Remove Warts Using Duct Tape
- File down the wart
- Apply enough duct tape to cover the wart
- After a few days, remove the duct tape
- File down the wart
- Repeat until the wart has gone
I didn’t have much success using this method simply because the duct tape would not stay in place for very long. I gave up after a few days, so I can’t vouch for how effective duct tape is for getting rid of verrucas.
For Info: Duck tape is a brand name for duct tape.
4) Super Glue To Get Rid Of A Verruca
After trying the above three methods to get rid of my verrucas without success, I had a time-out. Both verrucas were fairly small and weren’t causing any problems. But after a few months, the bigger verruca started to become a painful problem once again.
This time I turned to super glue as my weapon of choice.
Here are the steps I used to get rid of verrucas using super glue.
- File down the verruca as much as possible to remove the hard skin.
- Get your favourite super glue and completely cover the verruca. It only needs to be a thin covering. I’m not sure if it makes any difference which glue is used. I used Loctite super glue.
- Allow the glue to fully dry and then go about your day.
- After two days, file all the glue off and re-apply another covering of glue. If the glue starts to crack and comes off before two days, then file off the glue and reapply another covering.
- Religiously repeat this process until the verruca is gone. I kept repeating the process for a little while after I thought the verruca had gone, just in case it was still there but very small.
How Long Does It Take For Verrucas To Go Using Super Glue
It took under a month to get rid of the newer verruca I picked up at the gym. The older verruca was a bit more stubborn and took about six weeks to remove it using the super glue method. The old verruca was smaller than the new verruca, so it appears the longer you’ve had a verruca, the longer it will take to remove.
Benefits Of Using Super Glue To Remove Verrucas
- Super glue, in my case, was more successful at removing verrucas than commercial verruca removal products.
- Unlike Bazuka That Verucca and similar products, super glue is clear, not bright white.
- Because the glue covers the verruca, it presumably helps prevent it from spreading.
- Super glue dries quickly, so you don’t have to wait long after applying the super glue before you can start using your foot again.
- No painful side effects, like damaging healthy skin around the verruca
Negatives Of Using Super Glue To Remove A Verruca
- I can’t prove that the super glue got rid of my verrucas; it might have been that the verrucas were naturally going anyway.
The super glue method worked for me and might work for you, so give it a go.
Conclusion: How To Get Rid Of A Verruca
Hopefully, one of the verruca removal methods listed above will work for you. I think the key to all of the above methods working is persistence. If you only go at it half-heartedly, the success rate of getting rid of your verruca is greatly reduced.
It should be noted that none of the methods above actually get rid of the virus that causes verrucas in the first place. This means that it is quite possible that another verruca will randomly appear!
