Warts
Natural Remedies

Combat Warts Naturally: Top Remedies Ranked for Effectiveness

Apple Cider Vinegar

144 User Reviews
5 star (126) 
  88%
4 star (5) 
  3%
3 star (6) 
  4%
1 star (6) 
  4%
(1) 
  1%

Posted by Sarah (Columbus, Ohio, Us) on 02/22/2013
★★★★★

I used regular food-grade Apple Cider Vinegar on my plantar warts after years of trying to freeze or compound-w them away. I had a very bad infestation on my toes and on the balls of my feet. There was nothing except duct tape that could stick to my feet all night long. I cut those make-up cotton rounds to size, soaked them in acv, and taped them in place each night until the pain was distracting me from sleep. I walked around in socks during the day, washed my feet with salycillic acid soap in the shower, and rubbed some reccommended supplemental powder (I forget the name of but was a bear to find at the druggist's) after the shower. I took a break for about a week and went at it again until they were all gone. I went from three- inch by inch sized mosaics, four kissing warts, and at least two dozen stand-alone warts to nothing in two months after having to wear socks and shoes all the time for 8 years to keep from infectin others. Now, I go barefoot all the time!


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Kingsdaughter (Syracuse, New York) on 02/09/2013
★★★★★

Apple Cider Vinegar cured 14 warts on my hands, most of them in a matter of 1 1/2 weeks, when nothing else would. I applied it at night by placing small bits of ACV-soaked cotton ball on the warts and securing them with duct tape, and then removing them in the morning.

If at any point it hurt too much, or if the skin around the wart got too sensitive, I would just take the cotton ball off and wait a few days before resuming treatment. It's a pretty forgiving method, and super effective. The warts turn black and just fall right off.

Warning: DO NOT PICK at the warts; let them come off on their own. I have absolutely no scarring except from one wart that I picked off before it was ready.

I understand that this treatment has taken a lot longer for some, but IT WORKS. If it's taking longer, I would recommend filing down the wart before applying ACV.

I've only gotten 2 new warts in the past two years, and they were also easily treated with ACV. Warts no longer scare me, because I know how to deal with them!


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Blair (Halifax, Nova Scotia) on 01/19/2013
★★★★★

I promised myself I would write a review of this home remedy should it work, so here I am letting people know that if you do this right it will work to remove warts. I had had two ugly warts on my face for the last 5 years, one on my cheek and another by my nose, when I first got them I thought they were zits or something, then they weren't going away so I thought they were cysts, the last thing I wanted to accept was that they were warts, so I went for years with those ugly things on my face. I came across this webpage and all the stories of people with success in removing warts so I thought what the hell I am giving this a try. I picked up some cheap Apple Cider Vinegar it cost me less than $5, I used it full stregnth on small cotton ball the size of the wart by securing the cotton to the warts with bandaids. I wore this 24/7 for 3 days changing the bandaids and reapplying the ACV every 4 hours or so. The warts turned Red, then black. I kept on applying the ACV for another full day the wart by my nose peeled off, the one on my cheek hung on 1 more day but it too fell off. I am left with two pinkish color spots where the warts used to be 1 full week later. I suspect in a week or two the pink will vanish with more healing time. I did experience some stinging when I was applying the ACV, and I did burn skin around the wart by making the cotton ball too big a few times, if I ever have to do this again I will protect the skin around the wart by applying polysporin or vasiline to the healthy skin to protect it from the burning. I am so happy this cure worked for me, I just wish I had looked it up earlier and not spent years with bad facial skin. Good luck everyone.

Replied by Jolene
(New Mexico)
11/03/2013

Aloe vera will take care of any skin that is irritated by the apple cider vinegar.

Replied by Kendra
(Miami)
04/22/2016

Hi there- I seemed to have burned the skin around my wart with ACV; any scarring from the burn? Any advice??


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Dude87 (Los Angeles, Ca) on 12/23/2012

I've been putting on ACV for almost a week on the effected area and the warts have turned white but nothing else is happening. I've also tried Collidail silver as well. Any help would be appericated.

Replied by Louwrence
(Rustenburg, North West, South Africa)
12/23/2012

Dude87, Put 35% food grade h2o2 on your warts. 1st break the skin of the wart with a nailfile then dab some h2o2 on the wart & continue till it is gone, it may take a while but it works.

Replied by Jolene
(New Mexico)
11/03/2013

I believe that raw organic apple cider vinegar is the most effective type to use.

Replied by Merna
(Asheville, Nc)
10/04/2015

Don't despair after a week. I removed a wart with ACV which took 9 days to fall off. Then when I stopped the treatment it started to grow back and I had to continue for a while longer to make sure it was completely gone. Recently I removed another wart with ACV and it was gone in 4 days and hasn't tried to return. All warts must not be equal. Both times I changed the cotton a lot to make sure it did not dry out. From my experience warts don't have a chance against Apple Cider Vinegar.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Madeline (Brooklyn, Ny) on 12/01/2012
★★★★★

it worked! Siamese twin small warts on my ringer finger. I wet the cotton part of a bandaid with ACV and covered the warts. Used the bandaids that have sticky parts 360 degrees around the cotton part, which helped to keep the ACV moist longer. I changed and reapplied this set up whenever the ACV dried out or my bandaid seemed soaked with water from just normal washing of hands or dishes. I was probably diligent enough to wear this setup 80% of the time until it was gone, in about a week. I tried soaking the cotton ball and adhering it with a bandaid, but the sting was intense, so I just stuck with the bandaids. My warts were pretty small so this seemed ok. As others have said, it turned black within days and some skin layers began to fall off. Sometimes I would file it down if there was loose skin. Then it turned into a blood blister, which I popped. I guess I had to see if the wart was under it! It was not. The wart is now gone! It has been 5 weeks. I wish doctors knew this! It would alleviate so much unecessary wart angst.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Changer (Philippines) on 11/15/2012

Just wanted to share my story - I got my warts burned twice, the second burning session, my warts were less by then. Reading and researching about warts articles online, was curious about the "ACV treatment". I'm wondering if I'll try to apply some ACV whiLe the wound is still open?? Doctor advise me to apply Mupirocin ointment.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Reallyworks (Philadelphia, Pa) on 11/12/2012
★★★★★

I promised myself that I would take the time to write a detailed note if ACV ever cures my plantar wart on my heel. I am AMAZED it did. 3 years of almost anything possible: freezing, cantharidin, CO2 laser, pulsed dye laser, bleomycin - and finally ACV got rid of this unbelievable nuisance.

I will not write too much about the past treatments, it was a long and frustrating journey. I will just say that CO2 laser was a BIG mistake. (A few years ago I had a good past experience with pulsed dye laser and I thought that only one type of laser exists; the dermatologist I went to did not fully explain the procedure and when I saw smoke coming out of my foot it was too late - he used a CO2 laser on my heel- painful, useless and makes the wart MUCH more difficult to treat). I spent a year trying pulsed dye laser after I finally found it at Temple University but this time it did not work. The wart continued to grow and became unbearable. I still believe in PDL but it was probably the CO2 laser that made the wart very difficult to treat.

So, after I almost lost all hope, I came across this site as well as a mention of ACV in the Mayo clinic site. I decided to give it a shot. My wife is a physician/researcher and she made fun of me, as this is not a scientifically proven method- but I had nothing to lose.

Here is what I did every night:

(1) Shave the wart with an emery board. I found that the pumice stone is not effective. Also, I found that it is best to do it on a dry skin.

(2) Cut a piece of gauze and SOAK it in ACV. It needs to be dripping wet. Put it on the wart, secure it with a cloth tape and then cover everything with a duct tape. Do not press to hard as it will drip all over. My theory is that other destructive methods did not work because they were applied every 3-4 weeks and this thing just keeps penetrating and kills the skin/wart.

After the first few night (~5) all you see is a puffy white circle. I kept going. At some point, it starts to burn BADLY a few hours after you put it. The wart also turns black. More and more black every day. Keep going despite the pain. I used to go to sleep and it woke me up. It is VERY painful. No way you can continue sleeping. When I woke up in pain, I just removed everything, washed my foot and went back to sleep after a few minutes. In the morning, I put Mediplast (40% salicylic acid) it helped soften the skin for the next "treatment" at night and it is also an analgesic agent.

I kept doing this until I could not stand the pain anymore even in the morning (it was very hard to step on the foot). It took 2-3 weeks. I stopped then and allowed it to heal. After the first round I noticed that the wart had gotten MUCH smaller but it was still there. I was encouraged. I did another round of treatment for about 2 weeks. In the second round it took longer for the ACV to start burning and the black mark was much smaller. It did become painful though and at some point unbearable and I stopped.

Today I went to the podiatrist and she confirmed that the wart is gone. I am still in SHOCK. The described is my personal experience and not any recommendation for anybody to do anything. I will look at this forum in the next few days and try to answer questions, if any.

Replied by Reallyworks
(Philadelphia, Pa)
11/12/2012

Forgot to mention that in my case the wart did not "fall off" bu itself nor I was able to pull it out. The wart turned black and I kept filing it with an emery board. Eventually, after I stopped the ACV (due to untolerable pain) and kept filing the skin, the dead/black skin was slowly removed and a new/pink skin was visible. So no dramatic tales of pulling the wart out. Just a slow process of killing the skin/wart and filing it away...

Replied by Timh
(Louisville, Ky, Usa)
11/13/2012
2063 posts

Reallyworks: Thanx for your input as this is a common illness. I have been battling the same condition for several yrs. A piece of adhesive tape at night and occasional Tea Tree Oil applied once-in-a-while keeps the wart minimalized sufficiently, but nothing permanent. I almost dug the wart out once, but must have left a little bit so it grew back. If it weren't for the bleeding, one could simply dig'm out.

Replied by Reallyworks
(Philadelphia, Pa)
11/16/2012

Another important factor is to keep everything disinfected: I used hydrogen peroxide to clean the wart area before and after using the emery board. I also disinfected the emery board. I wore gloves when treating my foot. Lastly, in the morning I always had Mediplast (while using the ACV) or just waterproof tape (after ACV "round" while letting it heal) on the wart area to prevent infecting my flip flops.

* I am a 40yo male.

Replied by Jim
(Oakland, Ca)
12/04/2012
★★★★★

I'd just like to add that I had a similar experience to Reallyworks. I had a deep, nickel-sized plantar wart on the ball of my foot for three years. I had it frozen twice by a podiatrist and then cut out (also by a podiatrist -- very slow and painful healing process) and all three times it came back. While trying to treat this wart (with filing and salicylic acid) I infected the tip of my right middle finger and got a large wart there too. I finally came across this site and started treating both warts with ACV. I bandaged the warts with ACV-soaked gauze nightly for about two weeks, and they turned black and eventually could be sloughed off. The finger was very painful during initial treatments, but my god, what a relief once they both were gone. My insurance company and I were billed well over $2000 for the medical procedures, and I probably went through four bottles of Dr. Scholl's salicylic acid before finding out about ACV. Really bizarre that docs don't tell patients about this extremely cheap and effective treatment!!


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Alex (Sydney, Australia) on 11/06/2012
★☆☆☆☆

For a very stubborn plantar wart on the heel I tried ACV after reading about it here. Insanely, monumentally painful and did not work after 6 weeks despite appearing to be working - scrape back and there it was, happy as larry. If anything it seemed to be thriving.

I was determined to make it work so on top of following the method most people seem to use I also trimmed back the top (and later scab tissue) with a medical razor whenever that was feasible usually every couple of days. I used ACV with a cotton pad, covered with duct tape and further taped down with medical tape. Twice daily and left on for at least 3 hours. It gradually became insanely painful. As in I could not think or sit still. Luckily had time off. However I endured the pain because I thought it would work. It appeared to be dying, firstly little dead blood dots and then later gerneral scabbing which I removed to see fresh wart underneath, which I also removed as much as possible. Never, never ended.

I dont know what the ACV was doing - must have just been frying my deeper skin layers which is what caused the insane pain.

Did this for 6 weeks before admitting defeat. Off to dermatoligist to see about bettle juice.

Suggest those with a persistant heel plantar wart check out plantarwartwarrior at blogspot for a hilarious account that is eerily simliar to mine. Warts on the heel are the absolute most stubborn.

Replied by Yilishabai
(London, Uk)
11/06/2012

I had a plantar wart on my big toe from age 15 til a year and a half ago when my daughter told me that her friend (a Podiatrist) uses an old method which involves numbing the toe, then stabbing it (the wart) until it resembles well, mince! ( This is not as bad as it sounds actually) Apparently the action causes the body defenses to rush to the site, find the wart and attack it. It then doesn't come back.. And any others get zapped too (by the body's defenses). Well, I went and had it done, I had a huge one, and 17 little ones all around it where over the years I had stabbed prodded and poked and put stuff on it, including ACV, banana, EVCO with garlic, duct tape.. All with no joy. Well I was amazed, delighted in fact... It worked. Even now I still sometimes get a little stabbing (not painful) feeling in my toe where the wart was, but everything is clean and clear and I have no further problems. Works for 80 % of people I think. I think it is called verrucae needling, but I can't remember exactly.

Replied by Yilishabai
(London, Uk)
11/06/2012

oops sorry, forgot to mention, I was 54 when I had it needled! Had that wart for quite a few years!

Replied by Julie
(Australia)
11/25/2021

My son had a solid wart that suddenly appeared on his big toe. I cut a slice of fresh garlic, put it on the wart and secured it with a bandaid, then wrapped a piece of gauze around it to keep it secure.

Within a few days, it had fallen off, roots and all. It never returned.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Karen (Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada) on 10/09/2012

I have been using Apple Cider Vinegar to try to remove a cluster of Plantar's Warts on my foot. My foot and lower part of my leg get somewhat "warm" when doing this procedure. Is this normal?


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Mel (Atlanta, Ga) on 09/14/2012

Its 12:39 am and I have to share my success with the use of raw apple cider vinegar to get rid one wart that quickly turned to 3 warts on the bottom of my foot (the soft part of the bridge of the foot) because I want those suffering from wart pain to be very diligent and follow these simple steps but they must be done every single day in order to get rid of the problem. I am posting this variation of suggestions that I read from members of this website. Thank you all for sharing because I was miserable for 6 months with a wart that made me not want to walk anymore because of the pain I felt every day.

A little background on me: I am a female, 37, 5'3", weigh 125lbs, procrastinate, do not take conventional medicine unless I am in pain, I won't go to the doctor unless I am in pain or cannot improve condition with natural remedy and food, and am a vegetarian that does eat some fish and limited amounts of dairy. When I was self treating I was making anywhere from 2-3 green leaf blends with a piece of fruit every day (I figured it would help my immune system).

How the wart started: when it first started I saw a little black dot and I thought it was a splinter because it burned. I ignored it for a month thinking it would go away but since the burning feeling remained I took a sowing needle and dug it thinking that I could remove the splinter and this was silly of course for many reasons and I do not recommend this ever because of infections etc. ). So fast forward 2-4 months and I now had a callous because of my digging. At this point I had no idea that I had a wart and since the pain would subside when I shaved the "callous" I thought I would eventually be ok. I used the callous / wart removers but the acid made it look white, caused more pain and brought no relief so I stopped. Silly me at one point I thought it was a corn but the pain was unbearable and so I finally decided it was time to go to the podiatrist.

Six months after this ordeal began I am sitting in the podiatrist's office and after a quick look he immediately diagnosed me as having a plantar wart. I explained to him that at the time it was one and now it became 3. He explained that it spread because of the constant rubbing of my foot on my foot ware (sandal straps). He said I must keep it "taped up" in order to control the spreading and that I was to keep my foot covered even when I showered to keep it from spreading. His suggestions for treatment were: acid, laser and surgical removal. I was so desperate that I set up an appointment for surgery in 2 weeks time even though it would cost me $350.00 US dollars, it would leave a hole in my foot, I would be at risk for infection, I would have to stay off my foot for a week and then allow more time for the healing of the hole which depends on how fast your skin cells regenerate (lengthy). That was the level of my desperation and the desire to do anything to get rid of my problem. Luckily I had time to go home and think about it.

So I turned to earth clinic and read about plantar warts only to find out they are virally caused or caused by injury or trauma to the area. Since it is viral then it meant that I could potentially spend so much on surgery only to have it return and I was not about to waste money but I did feel defeated and had a cruise planned in 3 weeks time and I really wanted to get in the pool, wear sandals and be normal again.

So after reading numerous posts on earth clinic I came up with this treatment: ITEMS YOU NEED TO START: raw apple cider vinegar, duct tape or thin foot tape with the soft cover (Dr. Scholls or store brand) buy the roll so you can cut it accordingly, thick foot tape/ padding, hydrogen peroxide, aspirin pills (small bottle will do), cotton balls, metal razor (the old fashioned type) or a surgical knife with sharp blade, alcohol, a little disposable cup, plastic knife or stirring tool and plastic bags for the trash. TREATMENT FOR 3 WARTS (one was dime size and the other two were each a 1/4 of the dime):

1) at night or before bed clean the affected area with alcohol

2) cut a piece of the cotton ball- small piece and not bulky and large enough to cover the entire wart

3) in the cup put a few drops of the ACV --use this to dissolve an aspirin (the aspirin helps reduce the swelling) and end up with a slightly watery paste

4) dip this piece of cotton in the ACV & aspirin mixture and make sure the cotton is thoroughly soaked but not dripping wet & squeeze the excess

5) apply this wet cotton on the wart

6) use a generous amount of the thin tape to cover the entire area & try not to have air pocket gaps -OVERNIGHT THIS MIXTURE WILL REDUCE THE SWELLING AND MAKE THE WART SURFACE -kind of like a surfaced volcano

7) the next day in the morning remove the patch and clean the area with alcohol and dispose of the old patch etc

8) the skin over the wart should look white, be soft and not be painful to touch if that is the case then take the razor or surgical knife- please please sterilize with alcohol before using & use the instrument to shave off the "dead" white skin don't be overly ambitious and shave your healthy skin -the process takes time- as it took me 3 weeks to completely eliminate all 3 warts

9) during the day if you have a wart on the bottom on your foot as I did then having the ACV patch is not practical and I do not recommend it instead give your foot a rest and use a strong and sticky patch (the thicker one was really sticky) to cover the entire area and make it easy to walk with the cushion of the thick patch

10) Before bed remove the day patch & you will peel off some more "dead-white" skin

11) repeat steps 1-8

12) on one of the nights you do not want to use ACV you can use hydrogen peroxide and it will do the same but this burns so I only used it 2x throughout my 3 week treatment

13) repeat steps 1-12 until you have shaved enough of the "dead white" skin where it is finally leveled with the healthy skin

14) at this point you will start to see what looks like the root of the wart little black dots which is actually coagulated blood --the skin above these black dots will look very stringy & kind of shredded looking- maybe it was the case for me since I used the over the counter acid when I thought it was a callous

15) this part gets tricky because you will have to be careful when shaving and keep making sure that your sticky tapes are helping removing the "dead" skin. I highly recommend the razor that is bendable so you can curve it when shaving the root area with the regular razors this is not possible-eventually you will get to the part below the black dots and you will see that is actually healthy skin

16) just in case there might still be affected skin you can still do the ACV treatment

17) at this point the pain should be gone and the skin will look weathered with the outlines of where the wart(s) used to be you might not be 100 sure that it is gone but you will be symptom free

18) once I was sure it was gone I used raw organic coconut oil to help heal the skin and moisturize --I did end up getting a fungus I guess because of the moisture (the skin peeled but it quickly went away with the daily application of the coconut oil mixed with a drop of tea tree oil

19) a month after I stopped treatment my foot looks like I never had a wart --This treatment works but you have to be diligent and never falter and you will be renewed once again in body and spirit as I am now.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Canyon (San Francisco, Ca) on 09/01/2012

I get the feeling everyone here appreciates this forum as much for therapeutic reasons as they do for the key to treating this upsetting condition at home. For me, I've read nearly every post, women and men, because this condition has bummed me out so bad, and we all have this in common. It is such a burden to carry something like this-scared to talk to partners and even friends and family.

I'm writing to warn that the ACV can burn the skin around a wart pretty severely, which I feel naive for realizing after I burnt myself.

It seems very important to keep the soaked cotton no bigger than the wart and maybe to try the application in shorter increments than leaving on overnight (which is what I did). The larger of the three peeled off as my skin was melting essientally, but I'm not convinced the others are coming off.

This has been a learning experience. Next time I will take two weeks in my mind to complete the process with healing and all, and also do a more regimented job with the ACV.

I'm about to tell someone I've slept with unprotected a couple times, and I can't be more afraid. Now, having burns on my cock hasn't helped much either.

Good Luck Everyone.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Curtis (Kitchener, Ontario) on 06/30/2012

After reading all the positive testimonials on this site, I tried ACV. After just the first night with some gauze soaked in ACV bandaged to the wart, it turned BLACK! I kept it covered with ACV as much as possible on the weekend and only at night during the week. The skin around the wart got "puffy" and white - but not soft. I used a metal emery board to scuff down the "dead" skin and to expose the wart so the ACV could do its thing. I continued on like this for several days. The whole top of the wart was not black and hard. I used a very sharp knife with a sharp point on it to carefully scrape away the top layer of dead crusted skin. To my surprise, the skin underneath was red, fresh skin with what seemed to be the shrinking nucleus of the wart. I peeled off the dead, crusty, black skin after soaking the area. Then, after the skin dried, I put more ACV soaked gauze on it for the night. That hurt like hell and I had to take it off. The next night I resumed my ACV treatment.

It's now been exactly one week and after scraping off more dead skin, it seems my wart is completely gone. There are a few "dark" spots that I believe are simply dried blood. There was very little bleeding when I was scraping the dead skin off - pulled some healthy skin by accident. I'll soak it one more night to be sure but am very happy at the prospect of this wart being gone. Now, I can prove the processes effectiveness on the other 2 warts on that hand - :-S

Thank you all for sharing your stories. --Curtis

P. S. This wart was OLD and callused over. The other wart I have is new is more raised on the skin than the one I just treated. I'll be sure to report back on how it goes.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Stretch (La Salle, Manitoba) on 06/26/2012
★★★★☆

I'm in my third week of the cider vinegar thing with the mosiac warts & my huge wart has shrunk to about 1/3 of what it was. It is very painful at times after reapplying the vinegar & tape but will be worth it if it goes away & it looks as if it's working. Tried everything else including having the doc cut it out which was very painful, they came back in full force with friends so that didn't work but am seeing good results with the vinegar.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Danapoll (Fort Worth, Tx, Us) on 06/23/2012
★★★★★

Thanks to earth clinic and ACV I removed 2 plantar warts from my 8 yr old and 1 from my 6 year old's toes! So excited! I also removed a mole off my shoulder and now am trying one on my face since it worked so well.

I just did what they said here: soaked a small piece of a cotton ball with ACV and put it on the wart/mole wrapped with a couple bandaids at night before bed. Took them off for the daytime. If the skin around it got a little irritated, I simply gave it a rest for one night.

5 nights total for my daughter and left it alone after that and eventually it peeled off. 4 sparatic nights for my 6 yr old son and it eventually fell off in a couple of weeks. Its been 1 month and totally healed! Toes look as good as new!

Took off a mole on my shoulder. Soaked it over night 5 nights total with skipped days in between. Eventually it turned black and into a scab and well, I picked it off. Tiny little mark still there from picking. So excited I'm ready to try it on my face! No pain for any of us as long as we gave the skin a break time of a day when it got irritated.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Kyle (Suwanee, Ga) on 05/27/2012
★☆☆☆☆

After living with a deep plantar wart on the ball of my foot for a year and a half or so I tried the apple cider vinegar cure. After sleeping with a cotten ball soaked in apple cider vinegar duct taped to my plantar wart for weeks the wart remained very much the same and it was very painful.



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