Snot is a type of Mucus and it is made by mucus membranes in your nose. Your body has mucus membranes in all sorts of places like your stomach, intestines, eyes and lots of other bits of your body.

Mucus is very important and lots of creatures have it – not just humans. In fact there are tadpole sized ocean animals called giant Larvaceans who spin themselves balloon-like houses of muscus every day or so (imagine that – floating around in a big ball of snot!). They use their balls to help them catch and filter their food.

The mucus (or snot) inside your nose helps trap and filter things too just like the balloon-houses of the Larvaceans. Snot helps protect you from things like germs, dust, pollen and even bits of space junk. Sometimes when you are sick your nose will make more snot to help try and wash the germs out.

What is Snot made of ?

Snot is made up of water, salt and some proteins and antibodies that help trap and kill germs and help keep you healthy. You produce about one cup of snot a day.

What happens to all of the Snot?

The snot is moved along on a little conveyor belt of tiny little hairs called cilia. The cilia move the snot to the back of your throat where you swallow it all up. Yum.

What are boogies then?

Boogies are what happens when the snot starts drying out and there is lots of junk. Boogies can be big brown dry clumps, slimy sticky green lumps and everything in between. As well as snot you can find all sorts of things in boogies like pollen, dust, sand, fungi and even little bits of meteorites.