What Are Boogers, and Should You Pick Them?

Have you ever wondered what boogers actually are? Boogers are pieces of dried nasal mucus that trap air pollutants, bacteria, dirt, pollen, and other harmful substances. Your body usually makes more mucus when you have allergies or a bacterial or viral infection.

While boogers can be irritating, it’s recommended that you don’t pick them. Instead, try blowing your nose, a saline rinse, or taking a warm shower to loosen and remove the hardened mucus.

Boogers are pieces of dried nasal mucus that get trapped in your nose. Mucus is the slimy substance that the mucus membranes lining your nostrils create to trap air pollutants, bacteria, dirt, pollen, and other harmful substances. Your nose and sinuses make approximately 1 liter (l) of mucus per day.

Boogers are dried, hardened nasal mucus. Snot is liquid nasal mucus. Snot is what drips out of your nostrils when you have a runny nose or down your throat when you have post-nasal drip. Your body usually makes more nasal mucus than usual if you have an upper respiratory infection or nasal allergies to help get rid of the bacteria, virus, or allergen that’s making you sick.

Boogers form when air passes through your nostrils, drying up nasal mucus. Goblet cells secrete mucin (a fluid that lubricates the airways) and line the inside of the nostrils.

This lubrication helps protect against:

• Air pollution
• Bacteria and viruses
• Dirt
• Dust
• Pollen

Nasal mucus traps these substances in the hairs of your nose (cilia). The air that passes through your nose when you breathe dries up the snot, forming boogers.

Nasal mucus that dries up and becomes boogers helps keep you healthy. The mucus helps trap airborne dirt, dust, and debris you inhale through your nose to prevent it from reaching your lungs. The mucus in your nostrils also helps keep infectious microbes, like bacteria and viruses, from getting into your airway and making you sick. Producing boogers is normal and does not mean you are sick. 

An infection, such as a cold or sinusitis, can cause your body to produce more boogers than usual. Bacterial or viral infections cause the mucus membranes that line your nose to become inflamed, leading to more snot.

Allergens and irritants, such as dust, mold, pollen, or smoke, also increase mucus production. Allergic rhinitis (hay fever) is inflammation of the nose. Other symptoms include a runny nose, itching, sore throat, and sneezing.

Health care providers recommend that you avoid picking your nose, medically known as rhinotillexomania. Picking your nose can damage the delicate tissue that lines the nasal passages. You might develop nosebleeds as a result.

Putting a finger on or inside your nostril can also transmit any bacteria or viruses on your hands into your nose, increasing the risk of an infection. If you touch a surface like a doorknob, for example, that has cold viruses on it, you transfer viral particles into your body when you put that same unwashed finger in your nose to flick out a booger.

It works the other way, too: Putting your fingers in your nose can transmit viruses and bacteria from your boogers to other surfaces you touch afterward, potentially making others sick. Use a tissue to blow your nose and wash your hands shortly after.

Blowing your nose is a simple way to get rid of boogers. Try blowing your nose after inhaling steam from a warm shower, using a saline nasal spray, or doing a nasal saline rinse to loosen the dried mucus.

Nasal decongestants can decrease nasal mucus and boogers if saline sprays or rinses don’t help. Do not take nasal decongestants for more than three days. These medications can cause rebound congestion and inflammation in the nose. Antihistamines can also help decrease nasal mucus production if you have allergies.

Talk to a healthcare provider if these home remedies do not work or you have:

• Cough that brings up mucus or lasts longer than 10 days
• Foul-smelling nasal discharge
• Nasal discharge that occurs after a head injury or with a fever
• Snot that drips out of just one nostril or is a color other than white or yellow
• Stuffy nose that lasts longer than three weeks or occurs with blurry vision or swelling of the face
• Throat pain
• White or yellow spots on the tonsils or throat

Boogers, which are dried nasal mucus, may seem gross, but nasal mucus is important for your health. Nasal mucus helps trap airborne dirt, dust, and microbes that you breathe in and prevents them from reaching your lungs. Boogers can be yellow, green, or brown because of the particles that get trapped in them.

It’s recommended that you avoid picking your nose, which can introduce any germs on your finger into your body or transfer them from your nose to others. Instead, try loosening dried mucus with steam from a warm shower, nasal saline spray, or saline rinse before blowing your nose.