A verruca is a wart on the sole of the foot, caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). It grows into the skin rather than outward, which is why it often looks flat or slightly sunken compared to warts on your hands. Verrucas are extremely common, especially in children and teenagers, and while they can be painful when you walk, most are harmless and many clear up on their own.
What Causes a Verruca
Several strains of HPV cause verrucas, but the most common culprits are HPV types 1, 2, 27, and 57. The strain matters more than you might expect. In a clinical trial analyzing treatment outcomes, verrucas caused by HPV type 1 cleared on their own 58% of the time after a wait-and-see period, while those caused by HPV types 2, 27, or 57 resolved in only 7% of cases. You have no way of knowing which strain you have without lab testing, but this helps explain why some verrucas disappear quickly while others hang around for years.
The virus enters through tiny breaks in the skin on the bottom of your foot. Wet, softened skin is especially vulnerable, which is why swimming pools, communal showers, and gym changing rooms are common places to pick one up. When your feet are damp, the outer layer of skin softens and minor abrasions from rough floors make it easy for the virus to get in. The incubation period is long, often several months, and you may be infectious during that time before any visible wart appears.
How to Identify a Verruca
Verrucas have a few distinctive features that set them apart from calluses or corns. They feel rough and grainy to the touch, and they tend to interrupt the natural lines and ridges of your skin rather than following them. One of the most recognizable signs is a scattering of tiny black dots across the surface. These aren’t seeds or dirt. They’re small blood vessels that have clotted inside the wart.
Because body weight presses the verruca inward, it often sits flush with the surrounding skin or looks slightly indented, unlike warts on your fingers that stick up. You might notice a hard, thickened ring of skin around the edges. Squeezing the verruca from side to side typically hurts more than pressing directly on it, which is a useful way to tell it apart from a callus.
Verrucas can appear alone or in clusters. A group of verrucas growing close together is sometimes called a mosaic wart. These can be harder to treat because the virus has spread across a wider area of skin.
Why They Hurt When You Walk
Unlike warts elsewhere on the body, verrucas bear your full weight with every step. The pressure pushes the wart deeper into the soft tissue of your sole, which can press on nerve endings and cause a sharp or burning pain. Some people describe it as feeling like walking on a small pebble.
If the pain is bothering you, a doughnut-shaped felt pad or moleskin patch placed around the verruca can redistribute pressure away from it. Shoe cushions or insoles also help. Over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen or acetaminophen can take the edge off on particularly uncomfortable days.
Who Gets Verrucas
Children and teenagers are the most likely to develop verrucas, partly because their immune systems haven’t yet built up defenses against the HPV strains involved. People who walk barefoot in communal wet areas are at higher risk, as are those with weakened immune systems. If you have small cuts, cracked heels, or dry skin on your feet, the virus has more entry points.
Verrucas are contagious, though not highly so. You can spread them to other parts of your own foot by touching or picking at them, and you can pass them to others through shared surfaces. Wearing flip-flops or sandals in pool areas and communal showers reduces your risk. Keeping your feet dry and avoiding sharing towels also helps.
Do Verrucas Go Away on Their Own
Many verrucas do resolve without treatment, but the timeline varies widely. In children under 10, the immune system tends to clear the virus effectively, and clearance rates with cryotherapy in that age group reach about 90%. In adults over 40, the same treatment clears verrucas only about 65% of the time, suggesting the immune response to these HPV strains weakens or becomes less efficient with age. Without any treatment, some verrucas disappear within months, while others persist for two years or longer.
The HPV strain also plays a significant role. As noted above, HPV type 1 verrucas are far more likely to resolve on their own than those caused by other strains. If your verruca has been stable for many months without growing or causing pain, watching and waiting is a reasonable approach.
Treatment Options
Salicylic Acid
The most common first-line treatment is salicylic acid, available over the counter as liquids, gels, or adhesive pads. It works by gradually dissolving the layers of infected skin. You apply it daily after soaking the foot and filing down the dead skin with an emery board or pumice stone. Treatment typically takes several weeks to a few months of consistent daily use. Skipping days significantly reduces effectiveness.
Cryotherapy
Cryotherapy, or freezing, is the most common professional treatment. A clinician applies liquid nitrogen to the verruca, destroying the infected tissue. In a study of 560 patients, the overall cure rate was about 76%, with a recurrence rate of roughly 20%. Most people need multiple sessions spaced two to three weeks apart. Treatments at two-week intervals appear to produce lower recurrence rates than three-week intervals. The procedure stings during application and the area may blister and feel sore for a few days afterward.
Duct Tape
Duct tape occlusion is a popular home remedy, but the clinical evidence is weak. In a controlled trial, duct tape cleared warts in 21% of patients, which was no better than the 22% clearance rate in the control group using simple moleskin patches. Among those whose warts did clear with duct tape, 75% saw the wart return within six months. Based on this, duct tape does not appear to be an effective standalone treatment.
Other Professional Treatments
For stubborn verrucas that resist salicylic acid and cryotherapy, clinicians may turn to other approaches. These include treatments that use heat, laser, or chemical agents to destroy the wart tissue, or methods designed to trigger a stronger immune response against the virus in the affected area. These are typically reserved for verrucas that have persisted for a year or more despite standard treatment.
Preventing Spread and Reinfection
While you have a verruca, a few habits reduce the chance of spreading it. Avoid picking or scratching at the wart, as this can transfer the virus to your fingers or other parts of your foot. Change your socks daily and let shoes dry fully between wears. If you use a pumice stone or file on the verruca, don’t use it on healthy skin afterward. In shared spaces like pools or showers, waterproof plasters or swim socks provide a barrier, though evidence on how much these reduce transmission is limited.