Do Toads Actually Give You Warts? | The Truth About Warts & How to Get Rid of Them

It's a common tale that toads can give you warts—but we're here today to absolve the poor, humble toad of its wart-giving reputation. Learn about the real virus that causes warts, how they spread, and what you can do to get rid of them in this new episode of SciShow! Hosted by Michael Aranda.
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[mareeyo]

When I was young, I had a total of 40 warts on both of my hands (I get chills just by typing this) which I contracted by sharing fries with an infected friend. My parents took me to a dermatologist who gave me more than 10 different anaesthesia injections and burned them off with nitrogen. I still have some scars but just thinking about them gives me goosebumps.

[andreaa.]

I had a wart on my hand for at least a year or maybe two and finally my mom took me to the dermatologist. She applied some sort of beetle juice that created a very large and painful blister underneath the wart that forced it to detach from the rest of the skin eventually. Weird and unpleasant but it worked after two treatments.

[lamklaner]

My younger brother had a wart 'colony' on his hand. He tried everything from duck tape to freezing to antibiotics. What sorted it for him was garlic. Taking a garlic clove and using tape to attach it to the affected area. After well over a year of trouble this treatment took a couple of weeks, but no problems since!

[jibijay]

Had a mother wart on the bottom of my heel as a teenager. It almost covered my heel, was circular and looked like a collection of warts piled up and around each other.I remember when it started coming away and I picked it out. Had a nice crater in my heel after which healed up and returned to normal but I never forget how satisfying it was to peel that beast off and feeling air on my heel where the wart was. Good times.

[sandreid]

Had a wart on my hand 6 months ago. Went to my doctor, which sent me to a skin specialist. They cut, froze, and then told me to buy Verucid from the local drugstore. None of it seemed to help, despite lots of patience, and after 3 months I had kinda given up.
I then went on the internet and found some old "house wife tricks" on how to remove em (And among them: The ducktape). I did go with simple salted water however. 2-3 times per day, for about 10 mins each time, and within 2 weeks, my wart was complete gone.

Those "tricks" actually worked a lot better than the actual drugs on the market. Or at least, they did for me. But people say the results differ a lot from person to person, so maybe I just got lucky ^^ Just wanted to share the story. It's not just imagination, that it works :)

[dkamm]

Let me add another anecdote. I had a wart on my finger when I was a teenager, and I kept it covered with duct tape 24/7. It ended up actually falling out entirely after a few weeks. Yes, there are easier and faster removal methods, but this did actually work for me.

[theinternetstolemysoulbuti]

My instinct of avoiding other people... Is stronger than ever.

[fitztastico]

To anyone dealing with warts that resist treatment, hopefully this helps someone else in the same scenario I was in - At one time I had 30+ warts on my left foot, 1 giant one on my left knee, and 12 or so on my left hand and no standard treatment worked (doc office or OTC). While the ones on my hand and some on my foot were roughly a year old, others like on my knee had been there 3+ years with zero improvement after many kinds of treatment. Finally, I decided to light matches, blow them out, and hold them to the wart. My theory was that doing so initiates a healing response that allows the body to recognize the virus and attack it (similar to freezing). The first round where I burned every single wart took long enough that I decided to treat my hand first and if it worked, then move on to my knee and foot. After about 5 weekly match sessions to the warts on my hand, they actually shrank and disappeared. Then, when I looked at my knee and foot I found they had COMPLETELY cleared without me realizing it. Mind you, over 30 warts on the bottom of one foot meant that it was absolutely _covered_ 5 weeks earlier and yet it looked like a foot that had never seen a wart. I'm not sure if the 1st match treatment is all that was necessary or if the next 4 weeks of work on my hand continued to stimulate my body's response, but I was so grateful to have found something that worked for me. Good luck!

[justwatching]

I wish warts were only caused by toads because I never touch toads

[mirceagogoncea]

For everyone worrying about cancer: the strains that cause cancer are generally not the same that cause visible warts. Also, infection with all kinds of low-risk strains is ubiquitous, and it is estimated almost half of all people are carriers of some kind of low-risk strain (or multiple). Your immume system generally takes care of everything! That being said, don't touch people with warts, if you can avoid it! Higher concentration of virus = more chances of infection. So even if your immue system is perfectly capable of handling the viral load of just touching regular HPV-infected surfaces around you, it might not be strog enough to deal with direct contact with a wart.

[Ichthyodactyl]

I had a fairly large cluster (5-6) of big warts on my knee when I was a kid, tried a couple things to get rid of them to varying degrees of success, they always came back eventually though. Grandma put duct tape on my knee and told me not to touch it for 4 days. No more warts.

Anecdotal maybe but there's definitely something going on there, I'd be curious to find out what.

[deep_fried_analysis]

Hello, SciShow! Do you think you could make a video explaining the current knowledge of cerebral aneurysms? I had one rupture at 19 and after learning so much about them, I would love for a bigger audience to learn of them!

[Evanthestrange]

Had warts when I was a kid. I remember having 70 or more on my hands at their worst. Believe it or not, the duct tape method did work for me. No idea why.

[TheAverageAmazingMe]

If I get anxiety about these infections, could I be called a


Worrywart?

[mariamnersisyan]

As someone who had warts in my teens, I can tell you that over the counter anti wart medications didn't work for me.. what did work was taking a banana peel, and putting crushed garlic on the inside of the peel and wrapping it on the infected area with a tape or a cloth overnight - I am not exaggerating when I say that warts went away within a DAY. Give it a shot! Btw I have heard from a doctor that HPV in warts isnt the same as genital HPV, can you please expand on that further? Thanks!

[SonLeDang]

I dropped a speck of super glue over mine. Waited half a day, peeled the dry layer off and applied another new layer. Repeat for about a week and the wart literally imploded it self and died.
I think the dried glue blocked off its oxygen intake. And the act of peeling the layer also slowy removing the incapacitated virus.

[masteryoshi]

I've had a couple of hand warts before. I used a clean razor blade and cut around the wart making sure to get all of it inside the razor cut. Then I wiggled it a little. Then I waited a day and wiggled it some more. I noticed it getting a bit dried out and tough. Then the next day I'd wiggle it and pull it out leaving a bit of a hole witch heals fully over a couple of weeks leaving no trace there was even a wart there in the first place.

[skilegit]

When I was younger I had one on my thumb right next to the nail so freezing it off was excruciating. There's still a bit of a bump where the wart was.
I also had one on my finger that I got rid of on my own by picking at it with nail clippers after taking showers. Eventually I basically cut it off and there was as much blood as popping a zit.

[nittanyburg]

I've only ever had one wart. It was on my hand when I was a kid and it took years to go away. Countless treatments, freezing, etc. I even scratched and picked at it until it was gone and bled a lot. But it always came back, until one day it just didn't

[Perspectologist]

I had very good results with Apple Cider Vinegar as a wart remover. I applied it daily (maybe twice daily, not sure) for a month or so. It irritated the skin more gradually than salicylic acid, but did a better job removing the wart. It was great for a particularly stubborn wart on the side of my nail on my finger. Freezing, lasers, salicylic acid, and even some prescription cream did not work. Apple Cider Vinegar was what finally worked.