There are as many wart cures as there are days in a year. I honestly never understood why these charms were so popular until I got my first wart the other year. It appeared on the side of my finger and, while it didn’t hurt, it was simply annoying. I began the process of rubbing apple cider vinegar onto it, two to three times a day, and within two weeks it was gone. I did not test out any of these folk remedies and cannot vouch for any of them.
Apple Cure
To get rid of warts, according to one folk charm, you must cut an apple in half and rub the warts with each half. Next, tie the apple halves back together with twine and then bury it in the ground. Say, “As this apple decays, so let my wart go away.”
Bacon
Bacon ice cream, bacon brownies, and bacon for warts. Kind of turns the stomach, right? Well, according to this folk remedy, you should rub your warts with a piece of bacon, tie a string around the bacon, and the bury it in secret. If you do this right, your warts will be gone in nine days.
Bean Cure
Touch each wart with a bean. Secretly go out to your garden and plant the beans. When they sprout, your warts will supposedly disappear. While the superstition doesn’t go any further than that, I would avoid eating any beans that grow from the wart plants.
Coffee Grounds
The next time you make coffee, rub the warm coffee grounds on your wart and bury them outside. According to superstition, your warts will disappear as the coffee grounds rot.
Corn
Here is a rotten thing to do to your neighbor. Take seven dried corn kernels and rub each kernel on your wart. Feed the corn to your neighbor’s chickens so that the wart leaves you and is transferred to him.
Crossroads at Midnight
The crossroads are perfect for a great many things, according to old superstitions. When it comes to a wart, you are supposed to go the crossroads at night, make a cross in the ground and spit in the middle of it. Your wart should soon vanish.
Dandelion Juice
I actually heard of this wart superstition a few years ago when a neighbor kid with a wart on his knuckle was testing it out. Pick a dandelion flower and rub the juice from the stem onto your wart. Toss the flower stem onto the ground. You wart should go away shortly. Called dandelion milk, the juice is still commonly used to treat skin diseases.
Stolen Dishrag
For this old wives tale, you are supposed to steal someone’s old dishrag and rub it onto your warts. Then you must either bury the dishrag or throw it into a pond over your left shoulder. As the dishrag rots, your warts will disappear.
Something Fishy
Go out fishing and after catching a small fish, rub it onto your wart and set it free. This will either transfer the wart onto the fish or onto the next person who catches the fish.
Counting Warts
Have you ever heard of the superstition that if you count the pennies in your penny jar, you will lose them all? This folk remedy for warts is very similar and it’s called counting warts off. Every night for nine nights you are supposed to count your warts. They will soon disappear.
Sources:
Roud, S. (2003). The Penguin guide to the superstitions of Britain and Ireland. London: Penguin.
Thomas, D., & Thomas, L. (1920). Kentucky superstitions. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
