# What can kill a werewolf? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2005, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572 "2005-10-23T23:18:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/21 "2005-10-24T06:50:05Z")
Oddly enough, while werewolves not liking silver may be a modern concept, according to some folklore, silver _is_ effective against…vampires. Huh. Anyway, I suppose it’s possible that werewolves and vampires are closely “related” enough that silver could effect both of them. After that, you might try Iron, which was supposedly harmful to fairies (and related beings) in British folklore. Failing that, having one stand next to a multimegaton nuke when it went off would probably be enough to do the job. (“Sure.” “Laws of physics.” “Right.”) ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/22 "2005-10-24T07:41:54Z")
In the White Wolf universe: another werewolf, 20 lucky-ass vampires (but 18 of 'em are still going to bite it), a few highly pissed-off demons in apocalyptic form, those indescribably huge and nasty genetic freak things created by Pentex, or Deus Ex Gamemaster. If none of those is handy, you’re out of luck. This is because werewolves get six turns to a vampire’s one, deal enough aggravated damage in one hit to kill most lesser beings, and are essentially immune to bashing and lethal damage and soak aggravated without much trouble. And they can teleport\*. Because they just weren’t powerful enough without that. \*Yes, I’m aware that a werewolf has to look at its own reflection in order to do this. Big deal; so it has to carry a shaving mirror. Or, if it doesn’t have one handy, it can just run and get one, since it has six freakin’ turns to do so before the other guy gets to do anything. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/23 "2005-10-24T11:43:02Z")
So werewolves are as mushy as you or I, they’re just bigger, stronger and willing to eat you? Not that I don’t still like them, I just mainly knew them from Hollywood and the only weakness I heard of was silver. And Monster Squad did kick ass, that guy was a great Dracula. Maybe there’s a werewolf on Lost and it’s Michael and that’s why he keeps howling WAAALLLLTT! Heehee ok dumb joke. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/24 "2005-10-24T11:50:20Z")
> [@Rainbowthief](#): > > A 1940’s style ray gun will kill anything, werewolves included. No-no-no. 1940’s style ray guns were _so unreliable_ that soldiers had to go back to using bullets, if you can believe it. Now, 19 **20** ’s Style _Death Rays_—_they’re_ another story. 😉😃😛 ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/25 "2005-10-24T15:34:20Z")
> [@Enola Straight](#): > > Chocolate? I asked about that in a thread a year or so ago. It was pointed out to me that they’d have to eat a lot of it(body weight ratio) and they’d probably be quite aware that chocolate was dangerous. So you’d either have to have some kind of hyperdense form you trick a werewolf into eating or chain the wolf up and force him to eat it. But if you’ve got the wolf chained up, you might as just use him for target pratice or burn him to death. “I love the smell of burning werewolf in the morning. It smells like…hot dog” I apologize for the pun. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/26 "2005-10-24T16:12:18Z")
In Dungeons & Dragons (3rd/3.5th edition), anything can kill a werewolf if you hit it REALLY hard. It’s just that their hyper-resilient flesh can shrug off a normal blow and reduce a huge wound to a scratch. Silver bypasses this resilience and hurts them as a normal weapon would hurt a normal creature. Van Richten’s guide to Werebeasts says that Wolfsbane (aconite) is effective against some werewolves, and getting them to ingest it, or injecting wofsbane into them could kill them outright. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/27 "2005-10-24T16:39:07Z")
I should also mention that in D&D you have be sure you’re fighting a werewolf (man who turns into a wolf) and not a wolfwere (wolf who turns into a man.) wolfwere’s natural resilience is bypassed by cold iron, not silver. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/28 "2005-10-24T16:43:10Z")
> [@Roland Orzabal](#): > > In the White Wolf universe: another werewolf, 20 lucky-ass vampires (but 18 of 'em are still going to bite it), a few highly pissed-off demons in apocalyptic form, those indescribably huge and nasty genetic freak things created by Pentex, or Deus Ex Gamemaster. If none of those is handy, you’re out of luck. > > This is because werewolves get six turns to a vampire’s one, deal enough aggravated damage in one hit to kill most lesser beings, and are essentially immune to bashing and lethal damage and soak aggravated without much trouble. > > And they can teleport\*. Because they just weren’t powerful enough without that. > > \*Yes, I’m aware that a werewolf has to look at its own reflection in order to do this. Big deal; so it has to carry a shaving mirror. Or, if it doesn’t have one handy, it can just run and get one, since it has six freakin’ turns to do so before the other guy gets to do anything. Did they supe up Werewolves in 3rd edition? My friends in high school played WW 2nd edition games all the time. And sure Werewolves were tough but not anything like you are describing. And yes… Monster Squad did teach many things… the most importantly that indeed “Wolfman’s got nards.” Oh and… yes a 4 year old girl is a virgin for use of magical spells. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/29 "2005-10-24T16:55:33Z")
By the way, when confronting the thing with silver, you should probably see HOW the werewolf is affected by it—like if (like **gonzoron** ) said, the beast is merely _vulnerable_ to it, or if it’s _actively harmed_ by it. (i.e. it would affect a werewolf like, say, nerve gas or fissioning plutonium would affect a human.) ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/30 "2005-10-24T18:53:31Z")
It’s been said before, but pretty much it can be summed up as. If something is trying to kill you, shoot it in the head, with a shotgun. Then do it again and then a couple more times. And then use a blunt object to reduce it’s skull and brains to a thick, putrid paste. If it survives that, it’ll be so braindead that it won’t be doing much more then watching reality shows. ---
**Author:** ![Hung\_Mung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/31 "2005-10-24T19:45:54Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > It’s been said before, but pretty much it can be summed up as. > > If something is trying to kill you, shoot it in the head, with a shotgun. Then do it again and then a couple more times. And then use a blunt object to reduce it’s skull and brains to a thick, putrid paste. > > If it survives that, it’ll be so braindead that it won’t be doing much more then watching reality shows. Hell, if it isn’t dead by that point I’d say it’s earned its dinner. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/32 "2005-10-24T19:48:47Z")
Nuke 'em from orbit - it is the only way to be sure. Brian ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/33 "2005-10-24T20:07:11Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Well, on the Disc, werewolves can be killed by the equivalent of dynamite. Vimes blew up Angua’s brother with a lob-fired signal flare in **The Fifth Elephant**. Thanks a lot. How about a spoiler box next time? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/34 "2005-10-24T20:22:47Z")
> [@Love Rhombus](#): > > Or dynamite (if you get that one give yourself a cookie)? [Where’s my cookie](http://www.umop.com/rps25.htm)? Somone at the City of Heroes board recently linked to RPS-15. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/35 "2005-10-25T00:46:27Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Anyway, I suppose it’s possible that werewolves and vampires are closely “related” enough that silver could effect both of them. In some folklore werewolves rise as vampires after death. > [@](#): > > After that, you might try Iron, which was supposedly harmful to fairies (and related beings) in British folklore. Not just British folklore. **Darkhold** Stabbing three times with a copper dagger, seems to be one of th many variants of the spilling three drops of blood I mentioned earlier. **Soulmurk** On what do you base your assumptions? Without facts and evidence there is no reason to assume an Uzi would be effective against lycanthropes. Re Death Rays Without the addition of a lunar spectrum lens, or the incorporation of moon rocks into the secondary columnating matrix, no Death Ray is effective against werewolves. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/36 "2005-10-25T01:38:47Z")
Possibly the least dignified werewolf slaying in the history of cinema occurred in Wes Craven’s recent film **Cursed** , where the pack leader is ultimately killed by a spatula. In all seriousness, though… these supposed “werewolf-killing” methods-- silver bullets, aconite, decapitation-- they’re all a bunch of hooey. Werewolves cannot be destroyed by any of these means, and any claims to the contrary are merely folklore and untrue lies. Don’t even bother to try any of it, really; it’s honestly just a colossal waste of time. There’s only one real defense against werewolves: _barbecued ribs_. This is an absolute, scientific fact. If you suspect that there’s a werewolf in your neighborhood, a big plate of juicy ribs on the front porch will keep them entirely at bay. If the ribs are gone in the morning, that means that a werewolf tried to get in, but was disintegrated along with the ribs in a burst of mutual annihilation. Remember, though: werewolves often travel in packs, so it’s wise to keep setting ribs out just in case. In a pinch, Polish kielbasa will also suffice. wuff. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/37 "2005-10-25T02:01:20Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > There’s only one real defense against werewolves: _barbecued ribs_. This is an absolute, scientific fact. If you suspect that there’s a werewolf in your neighborhood, a big plate of juicy ribs on the front porch will keep them entirely at bay. If the ribs are gone in the morning, that means that a werewolf tried to get in, but was disintegrated along with the ribs in a burst of mutual annihilation. Remember, though: werewolves often travel in packs, so it’s wise to keep setting ribs out just in case. In a pinch, Polish kielbasa will also suffice. And of course, lace them with posion or laxatives just in case it doesn’t work. Or rig up one of those hilarious rube goldberg devices where the werewolf eats the ribs and then through the most indirect method possible, has a cage dropped on him…or is dropped into a pit, possibly filled with punji sticks. > [@Terrifel](#): > > wuff. Is your throat sore? That seems to be going around. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/38 "2005-10-25T02:12:11Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > And of course, lace them with posion or laxatives just in case it doesn’t work. Or rig up one of those hilarious rube goldberg devices where the werewolf eats the ribs and then through the most indirect method possible, has a cage dropped on him…or is dropped into a pit, possibly filled with punji sticks. > > Is your throat sore? That seems to be going around. Make that silver punji sticks rubbed with Wolf’s Bane and I’ll help you build it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/39 "2005-10-25T02:24:31Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Make that silver punji sticks rubbed with Wolf’s Bane and I’ll help you build it. 😉 Okay, but first you have to eat some fudge with me. A about 5 lbs of the super concetrated stuff should be fine. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572/40 "2005-10-25T02:27:02Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Okay, but first you have to eat some fudge with me. A about 5 lbs of the super concetrated stuff should be fine. Lost me, is that in case we screw up and the Were Wolf gets us? At least he’ll die? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-kill-a-werewolf/327572.md?page=3)