Um, yeah, icky! Couldn't use something like a small pump instead of sucking it with your mouth. I want to throw up at the thought of sucking mucous.

I used with my firstborn a very similar item, but that one had a far shorter tube, it was E-Z to apply to much suction. Now that could have been icky if it wasn't my son. My wife was a bit disgusted sometimes when I had to spit it out. I don't know why, she does not like to swallow either. I got skillful with time and sucking up snot did not happen very often. With my daughter my wife wanted to use something similar that was connected to a vacuum cleaner, but it turned out too brutal for my taste, so I went back to lung power. I would be disgusted if I saw someone else doing this, but with my own kids it was completely OK.