Removing a stubborn splinter from your finger or foot is never fun, especially if it involves digging into your skin with a needle or tweezers. But if you use common household or food items around the house, you can remove splinters from your skin very easily and quite painlessly.
The next time you have a nasty run-in with old wooden furniture or your backyard fence, try a drop of Elmer's glue or a piece of duct tape to remove the splinter painlessly. Or use banana peels, eggshells, potato slices, or bread and milk.
For the tiny, nearly invisible splinters, the baking soda and water trick or the white vinegar technique seems to work well. Try Ichthammol ointment to remove stuck splinters and treat other skin conditions.
If you're having trouble grabbing on to the splinter, invest in a good pair of pointy-ended tweezers, perfect for splinter removal. Make sure to clean them each time you use them, though.
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- See Also: 9 Household Items for Minor Medical Needs
Got your own experiences with removing splinters from your skin? Share with us by commenting below.
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34 Comments
Pouring or squirting hydrogen peroxide over the splinter will cause it to 'boil' out also. If not completely, enough so that you can grab it with tweezers.
Good one! I remember reading that, too.
Thank you so much your advice helped me !
It didn't work,any other thoughts on how to get it out?
cut a piece of Fat Back of appropriate size. cover with a band-aid. magically the splinter will slip out of your skin and into the fat back. once confirmed the splinter is gone, dispose of the fat back and the band-aid.
Fascinating! Never heard of that one. Thank you for sharing!
The Bacon trick will also work for small infections.Had a hangnail that got infected used Bacon and next day it had pulled everything out. Healed very quickly afterward!
More reason to eat bacon.
What is Fat Back?
Baking soda and water works or bacon fat
A laser pointer is a good tool for examining splinters and determining depth/angle.
how does tape not hurt?
Just soaked it in white vinegar for half an hour and it made it sink in. :/
I tried the Elmer's glue but it didn't work. The duct tape did the trick though!
If you use the tape, is it painful?
For tiny metal splinter: tried spraying area with WD-40, then scraping skin gently with razor blade, toothbrush. Seemed to work.
I tried the peroxide, the baking soda, the banana peel and scotch tape tips - none worked - splinter was small and mostly embedded in my finger. I tried the duct tape and pulled in the opposite direction as advised and it worked!! Have had it for a week now, so thanks for the advice!
currently got this shit called magnoplasm slathered over my feet. hoping itll draw the army of splinters my feet. god knows my body isn't doing the job and m not walking around with this for much longer if I can help it.
I've had a splinter in my foot for god knows how long pulled one out bout 3 days ago one last night and I think something might still be in there hoping tape works oh and btw if you use toenail clippers with a dab of hand soap on the tips it helps get splinters out
None of these worked for me. All made it sink deeper??
My daughter had one and wouldn't let me do the usual picking it out with a needle. We soaked it in vinegar for 30 mins and it just came out, no needles no tweezers. That's cool thanks so much!
I think I have a little baby splinter in my foot and it's at an angle I can't even see it and I'm just scared to let my fiance remove it bc yano he isn't a great splinter remover guys I'm scared what do I do help
I've been at work just digging and digging with something pointy. I found the tip of the splinter. Going straight down into my finger... tried tape, peroxide. Thinking about sticking a bit of industrial bondo on it. I'll just try to leave it alone and do the vinigar and tweezer method. ??
I tried the vinegar method. I had a splinter DEEPLY embedded in my big toe. Thought I might have to go to the doctor but then I stumbled on this site and heard good things about the vinegar method. The first part of the splinter (the one that wasn't so deeply embedded) came out on its own after a 30 minute soak. The one that was deeply embedded took a bit more soaking. I did another 60 minutes and had to use the tweezers, but it was fairly easy to grab. I'd definitely recommend this method. I half expected the vinegar to sting, but it did not! Win, win!
Can the vinegar be normal vinegar??
Trust me vinegar is the best method, I finally got the Mexican fan palm spines out of my finger it been stuck under my skin for week.
Thank you for good tip :))
Just tried the vinegar one; it didn't help at all. Trouble is that the splinter isn't showing; tried to pull it out but it broke in half... Guess I'll try the banana-finger before I go to sleep tonight.
So i had a splinter in my finger for about 8 hours and i tried using pins, needles, a tweezer, a nail clip, peroxide, glue, tape, baking soda and NOTHING worked. I even started crying cause this thing was hurting really bad. I decided to use the last remedy which was the Vinegar and IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!! I didnt soak it for no 30 minutes (about 10) it stung a lil (its bareable) and i could actually see the splinter enough to use a pin (again) to pry it out. And it did not hurt! Sooooooo USE THE VINEGAR METHOD!!!!!!!
Going to try the vinegar now ,thanks for the advice
_I had a splinter in my thumb, i think it was a rose thorn, was inbeded in my skin deep. Had caused great pain while using the thumb to turn on water tap or write with a pen. etc.
Eventually, I decided to use the sterile needle, (sewing needle) burnt with fire.
I stretched thumb, could see an outline of infection and thorn bit.
I started to break the skin with a needle, bit by bit making the skin ooze water, then used tweezers to open up further to get thorn removed. Very small piece but caused so much pain for months._
iT WORKED FOR ME. THEN WASH AND DISINFECT CUT.
Wish i saw this sooner a while back my aunt was over a got a giant splinter in my big toe and it was deep. my aunt was visiting and she wasnt afraid of blood she grabbed a blade sterilized it then cut my big toe open never want that to happen again
I have a glass splinter in my foot with no baking soda in the house, only baking powder does this work just as well?
So I think I somehow got tiny pieces of wire or some kind of cactus sticker...idk what's on the bottom of my foot. But every step feels awful. I tried to look with a magnifying glass & can see tiny blackish or dark splinter like things. All over my right foot, from under my toes to the ball of my foot. Was able to get some off with tweezers but there are lots more. It's an awkward angle trying to do myself & don't have anyone to help me. (I don't think my 4yr old daughter will be much help, lol)???? What can I do to get whatever is there out easily...please & thank you. Also-i am trying to avoid Epsom salts due to the fact that I have dyshidrotic eczema. Epsom salt pulls too much moisture from skin, that would make it worse for me. Any ideas? I'm kinda unsure about trying the vinegar for the same reason. Not sure how it would be on my foot as it is.
White Vinegar (Cleaning Vinegar) & Baking Soda WORKS !! Suffered for weeks with small cut wire shard in ball of my foot. Warm water soak and tweezers did not work.
Followed advice from other threads on this website & Soaked foot for 45 mins.
Amazingly it pushed wire (we did not know what it was since previous attempts broke off tiny pieces) up and out of splinter wound so it could be removed with tweezers. Tomorrow was headed to doctor if this did not work. $5 for vinegar and baking soda a much better bargain!
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