Why did this work?

Interesting. I imagine the gluey substance on the duct tape nestled itself in there and attached to the splinter.

Duct tape fixes everything. You should have a roll in the car at all times. The glue stuck to the splinter and pulled it out.

I’m glad it’s out, @marinelife . @Adirondackwannabe is right. Duct Tape fixes everything. It’s magic. Doesn’t matter how or why, it is just an immutable law of the universe.

Everything can be fixed by duct-taping it or applying WD40, depending on the sitch, of course. ;-)

Here ya go, @marinelife . This should help explain it.

@JilltheTooth Thanks for the laugh!

I’ve always heard the only two things you need are duct tape and WD40. If ti’s moving and it shouldn’t be, use duct tape. If it isn’t moving and it should, use WD40.

@janbb : That was my Dad’s First Law of Fixit! Of course, it was my Dad’s only Law of Fixit which is why I learned very early on how to be very handy around the house.

There are an awful lot of suggestions online for removing splinters, and a lot seem to use salt in solution or other liquids with stuff in it. This makes me suspect it has something to do with osmosis—the wrinkled finger effect.

I’m guessing that if you wrinkle the finger, it gets smaller or tightens and pulls away from the splinter. As it pulls away, it becomes easier to remove it. If you are using tape, then it pulls the tape closer, and the tape sticks to the end, making it easier to pull out the splinter, should you pull very carefully. Most of the instructions say you only need to leave the tape on half an hour.

Why tape or bandaids (both are suggested)? Well, you know how when you pull a bandaid off, the skin is wrinkled? I’d say that when we cover our skin with something airtight, the moisture gets drawn out of the skin into the tape, thus creating the wrinkles and bringing the splinter in contact with the sticky stuff.

I would guess that this technique works better with splinters that go straight in than with ones that go in at an angle, such as those going underneath toenails and the like. In any case, I am quite amazed at the number of home remedies there are that I did not know existed. I always use the needle solution, but now I think I can try others. Of course, my kids are now old enough that they don’t scream when I remove needles. If only I had known these things a decade ago!

@wundy When you remove needles? What are you doing to those children?~

@marinelife Oops! Yeah. We practice body piercing in my family. Lol!

Obviously I meant needles splinters. Nearly did it again!

I think your body just naturally pushed the splinter out, maybe even the chemicals in the glue helped, because the body wants to rid itself of foreign substances. Then the sticky duct tape just finished the job.

I think depriving the area of oxygen softened the tissue, and your white blood cells went in and attacked it and took the barbed edges off the splinter so when you pulled the tape off, that part sticking to the splinter was able to pull it out easier.

I think that the body has it’s own ways of removing splinters. I say this because a few years ago I had a fairly large splinter from a kabob skewer in my leg and was unable to remove it with a needle. (in case you were wondering how in the world a food skewer got in my leg, one was dangerously sticking out of the garbage bag someone was taking it out and my leg grazed it and collected a big splinter) So I decided to just leave it alone and after a few weeks I could see that it was slowly coming out of my skin and I was eventually able to pull it out with a pair of tweezers. However, this may have a different ending for smaller splinters as the body might just absorb them? But I’ll leave that for someone else to find out.

I’ve also heard of a method of putting a dab of peanut butter over the area with the splinter and cover it with a bandage. Perhaps the oils in the peanut butter assist the splinter? But I can’t confirm this for sure because it’s something one of my friends mom did for her splinters when she was younger and I’ve never tried it.