From Cheoseo to Chuseok: The Fiercest Month for Snakes and Bees

On August 26, in Songgye-ri, Hansu-myeon, Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, at the foot of Woraksan National Park. Reporting began around an ancestral grave just a few steps off the hiking trail. A snake emerged from between dry blades of grass, and as the camera drew close, it raised its head straight up and lunged forward.


Eight snakes were found in this area: six Ussuri mamushis, one tiger keelback, and one Dione rat snake. 

When meeting with Hong Jong-tae, head of Songgye 3-ri village, he pointed to the seasonal terms first.
 
This year, Cheoseo was on August 23. Chuseok is on September 25. The month in between is the grave-clearing (beolcho) season, and to the village head, who has lived in the mountains all his life, this month is when snakes and bees are at their fiercest.

The village head himself has been stung multiple times. There was an occasion when he went up to mow around an ancestral grave but was stung by bees and had to come back down without even touching his sickle to the weeds.
 
He recounted that foraging for mushrooms was especially perilous the day he was stung three or four times at once by Asian giant hornets. But why are there so many Asian giant hornets around gravesites? The village head found the answer in the soil.
    Indeed, an examination of monthly raw data from the National Fire Agency's emergency rescue activity information system over the five years from 2021 to 2025 confirmed this trend.

Over the five-year period, 4,225 people were transported by 119 emergency services due to snakebites. September recorded the highest number at 886, followed by July with 802 and August with 778. By year, July recorded the highest numbers in 2021 and 2022, but starting in 2023, September has ranked first for three consecutive years.


Incidents involving bee stings reached 35,618 during the same period, more than eight times the number of snakebites. August (10,109) and September (9,985) saw nearly identical figures. In September of last year alone, 2,107 people were rushed to emergency care, averaging 70 people per day.

Why, then, does this peak occur in autumn? Dr. Song Jae-young, senior research fellow at the Korea National Park Research Institute under the Korea National Park Service, divided the reasons into two factors.
 
The locations where encounters occur also shift with the season.
 
Seeing it firsthand at the scene, it was exactly as described. A snake slithering into the vegetation blended so thoroughly with the grass that one had to look intensely with wide eyes just to discern whether it was present.


What precautions, then, can be taken? While snakes have dull vision and hearing, they sense ground vibrations. Tapping the ground with a stick is far more effective than shouting. Dr. Song explained that alum powder, commonly scattered as a folk repellent, has no effect because it lacks the strong odor needed to deter snakes.
  Many people assume that if bitten by a snake, receiving antivenom at a hospital resolves everything. That is only half true. According to Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency data on emergency department trauma patients, out of 665 snakebite patients from 2021 to 2025, 60.2% required hospitalization and six died. Dr. Song Jae-young noted that recovery takes a long time after a bite. 
 
Only one type of snake antivenom is commercially available in South Korea. It is the Freeze-Dried Mamushi Antivenom 6,000 IU formulation manufactured by Korea Vaccine, an antibody obtained by immunizing horses with pit viper venom. A paper titled "Antivenom for Korean Snakebites" (2013) published in the Journal of the Korean Medical Association stated that the Ussuri mamushi has the strongest toxicity among domestic venomous snakes. On that day, six out of the eight snakes discovered were Ussuri mamushis.

Nor is this drug a perfect fit for all domestic venomous snakes. In 2021, research teams from Chonnam National University and Nambu University developed antivenoms tailored respectively to three species—the short-tailed mamushi, Ussuri mamushi, and rock mamushi—and filed patent applications. In the application, the researchers noted the background that existing commercial products feature "a high rate of additional administration, and disease severity continues to increase." The project remains at the patent stage.

Even when medication is on hand, time is critical. A 2022 study published in the Journal of the Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology (Lee Se-rok and Jeon WOOCHAN, Department of Emergency Medicine, Ilsan Paik Hospital) analyzed 12,521 snakebite patients visiting emergency medical centers across the country between 2014 and 2019, recommending that antivenom be administered within three hours of a bite. Citing a 2007 survey showing that only 89 out of 117 emergency medical centers stocked antivenom, the same paper noted that hospitals lacking the drug took an average of two hours to procure it from other facilities. The delay is further prolonged in rural areas.

Nor can the medication be given indiscriminately. It is administered when swelling extends past half of the bitten limb, when local symptom severity scores reach 9 to 16 points, or when systemic symptoms and abnormal test results appear concurrently.

The situation is even worse for the tiger keelback. Because its venomous fangs are positioned toward the rear of the jaw and the injection pressure of its venom glands is low, it was long regarded as non-venomous or non-lethal. However, the Journal of the Korean Medical Association paper noted that recent cases and venom studies have confirmed a first-degree toxicity hazard. The species possesses abundant postsynaptic neurotoxins as well as toxins causing blood coagulation disorders. There is no antivenom available in South Korea for this snake. When bitten, treatment relies on supportive care and alternative therapies such as component blood transfusions.
  In the afternoon, the team descended to a village below the mountain. At a house used as a vacation home, a hornet nest had established itself under the eaves during the owner's absence. All reporting staff donned protective bee suits and taped the edges of their sleeves and pant legs to seal every gap. As crew members set up a ladder and detached the nest, hundreds of hornets swarmed into the collection net. Each individual hornet was as large as a joint of a reporter's thumb.


This hornet nest was noticeable because it was situated beneath the eaves. Nests encountered by grave-clearing visitors are usually far less conspicuous, particularly those built underground. Village head Hong Jong-tae explained: 
 
Guidelines from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety share similar guidance. Before mowing weeds, visitors should thoroughly examine bushes and areas surrounding graves to identify hazards like nests; if hornets frequently move in and out between trees or ground crevices, a nest may be located nearby. According to the Ministry's data, 92,660 people received medical care for bee stings over the past five years, with half of those cases occurring in August and September.

If a nest is disturbed, one should immediately evacuate to a distance of about 20 meters. Ministry guidelines advise protecting one's head and fleeing promptly, warning that lying prone or crouching makes one far more vulnerable to attacks.

Kim Han-soo, director of the Woraksan National Park Office, urged caution regarding trails and attire.
 
If bitten by a snake or stung by a bee, one should refrain from attempting self-treatment and immediately dial 119 or seek care at a medical facility. In the single month of September last year, a daily average of 70 people were stung by bees and five were bitten by snakes, requiring transport by 119 emergency services. Half of this September still lies ahead.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.