Covering a wart with duct tape can prevent the virus from spreading to other areas of skin. Removing the tape may peel off the top layer of the wart and help speed up healing.

Warts, also known as common warts, are small bumps on your skin that are caused by a virus. They’re most common in children and young adults.

Warts usually go away without treatment, but they can take several years to fully go away. However, some people might want to get rid of their warts faster.

Duct tape is a popular home remedy for warts, but it’s not for everyone.

Warts are caused by a virus within the body and can recur. Unlike other treatments, duct tape doesn’t seek to treat the underlying virus that causes the wart or to identify the “root” of the wart.

Instead, covering a wart with duct tape prevents the virus from spreading further by stopping the wart from contacting other parts of your skin. When you tear the tape off, the top layer of the wart will often come off with it.

One 2003 study claims that duct tape is 80% effective for speeding up the rate at which warts go away.

Older and newer researchseems to demonstrate that duct tape works better for wart treatment than other methods, like freezing. It uses fewer chemicals than topicals and is more cost-effective than laser treatment.

More clinical research is needed to better understand how duct tape works to get rid of warts.

This process is called “duct tape occlusion,” and it should remove the wart layer by layer. It may take several weeks for this method to fully eliminate a wart.

To get started:

  1. Apply a small piece of duct tape directly to the area of your wart and go about your day.
  2. Remove the duct tape once every 3 to 5 days and rub the wart with an emery board or pumice stone. You may also consider soaking the wart in warm water while it’s exposed.
  3. Replace the duct tape with a new piece after 10 to 12 hours of air exposure.

Some doctors recommend using salicylic acid as an over-the-counter topical treatment for warts.

You can find a wart removal product containing salicylic acid at nearly any drugstore. Using a treatment like this in addition to duct tape could help your wart go away faster.

Avoid using duct tape on a wart that’s in or around your:

  • anus
  • armpit
  • mouth
  • nose
  • penis
  • vagina

If you have genital warts, it’s important to consult a doctor or other healthcare professional. Human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes topical and genital warts, can be transmitted sexually.

Certain strains of HPV are also associated with a greater risk of cervical cancer. It’s important to get tested to see which strain of HPV you have before you try any home treatments for genital warts.

Plantar warts, which occur on the heels or other parts of the feet, may be more resistant to these treatments because the layers of skin on the feet tend to be more difficult to remove.

Talk with a healthcare professional before trying home remedies if a wart:

  • is painful
  • interferes with your daily activities
  • cracks and bleeds

These are symptoms of other types of skin growths.

Using duct tape to treat warts won’t work for everyone. Nevertheless, there have been studies supporting the use of treating warts with duct tape, and it is probably a low risk option.

Other approaches, such as topical salicylic acid and freezing, might be a better choice for some warts.

If you try this remedy without success, remember that most warts will eventually go away without treatment. Talk with a dermatologist if you’re concerned about a wart’s appearance, or if you have warts that keep coming back.