BY: SHARON NG KOOI KIN

IF you think leeches are the worst thing you can come across when in the jungle, wait till you come across wild boar ticks!

My husband, Chan Ah Lak, and I spent three days in Taman Negara, Sungai Relau in Pahang. The day after we came home, Chan felt itchy all over his body and upon checking, found a wild boar tick on his arm, another on his shoulder and a few more on his thighs. To remove them, he smothered each with a drop of cooking oil!

Over the next few days he found more ticks and because he had so many specimens at his disposal, he began taking photographs of them and even studied a few under the microscope! I took a peek at one of the ticks, magnified 100 times, and it was enough to sent chills down my spine.

We started counting the number of bites he had sustained because by the third day, each tick bite had developed into an angry red mound. We reached the number 40 and he said there more in hidden places!

Since he loves going into the jungle and has been doing so for decades, why didn't he take greater precautions against the ticks?

Well, firstly, not all our jungles are infested with boar ticks. On previous trips to the same area, we did not encounter this problem.

Later, we realised that we had spent a lot of time at a certain stretch of the Interpretative Trail which we had not visited before. We did notice, at that time, the extensive churning up of mud trails, sure signs of wild boar digging for food.

I also remember counting our blessings as there were fewer leeches than I had anticipated. This was another reason for Chan's high number of tick bites.

He was wearing shorts because he was not afraid of leeches and it was a steamy, humid day. I, on the other hand, was completely covered from head to toe, with long pants tucked into socks. I suffered only one tick bite on my wrist which itched for two, terrible weeks.

Wild boar ticks are known as kutu babi or cengkenik in Malay. The ticks, especially the H. semermis and H. papuana, are widely found in the forests of Malaysia, parts of Thailand and certain islands in Indonesia. The hosts are wild boars, deer, elephants, tapirs, clouded leopards, humans and domestic dogs. An adult tick can grow to the size of a thumbtack head.

The immature ticks, some as small as a speck of dust, usually infest forest rodents and smaller animals. It is these little devils that are most frequently found on humans because our skin is thinner and softer.

So if you go into a jungle where there are evidences of wild boar and other animals, use insect repellent generously, be suitably attired and be careful where you sit, squat or lean against!

The ticks are the size of a "full stop" on this page, so they are difficult to detect until you feel the itch and notice the tiny black dot at the apex of a bright red mound on your skin. Resist the urge to pull it off immediately as doing so will leave the tick's head embedded in your skin and it will continue to itch for months! What you should do is to kill it with insect repellent or baby oil.

Elephants have their own way to deal with the ticks. First it wallows in wet mud and then it lets the mud dry a bit before rubbing itself against a tree trunk. The ticks come off with the mud! Brilliant, huh?