Sounds like a ssssteal. A beautiful five-bedroom house in Idaho for only $109,000. It comes with a tiny catch: The house is infested with thousands of live, writhing garter snakes.
UPDATE: We Were Told Snake Infestation Was “Made Up”
One realtor is trying to offload the property, which went into foreclosure after the previously family got sick of the snakes and fled the premises. The realtor hopes the price drop will help, but it may not be enough. Even non snake-infested houses are having a hard time getting sold in this market.
“I guess I need a snake lover,” he told The Daily Mail. “Or someone with multiple mongooses.”
Previous owners described waking up in the middle of the night with snakes in their bed, finding snakes climbing up the walls all the time, and finding piles of snakes in crawlspaces. Just walking around the yard uncovered enough snakes to fill a bucket,
It’s likely no amount of mongooses or poison will do the trick, as the house was probably built on top of snake den, Joe Collins, director of the Center for North American Herpetology in Lawrence, Kansas told The Daily Mail. Even if most of the snakes were gotten rid of, some snakes would probably remain and give birth again, starting the cycle anew. Also, garter snakes leave phermone trails leading the way to a den, which attracts other snakes from other areas to converge on the den.
“Snakes have a great deal of fidelity to the den site,” said Collins. “They’re born near there and the animals return each fall to den up and avoid the cold…People always build first and never ask about an area and whether there is a snake den before they do. Afterward, it’s too late: the house is there, the snakes are there and people are there. It’s a great set up for a wonderful time.” For the snakes, that is.
Here’s a video done by the local news on one of the previous homeowners before they dumped the property:For sale, the house with a very strange hiss-tory: Desperate realtor slashes price on Idaho home infested with SNAKES [Daily Mail] (Thanks to GitEmSteveDave!)
FOLLOWUP
We Were Told Snake Infestation Was “Made Up”
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Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
God, I hate snakes…
Is it mongooses or mongeeses?
this is so dumb. there are many products that prevent snake infestation. Anyone that lives near woods should put some “snake away” under their house and in their yards.
Where I come from, we dig up the dirt, so I figure that would destroy any snake den.
This house would literally be most people’s worst nightmare. The thought of waking up to snakes in your bed is horrifying and sounds like a scene from a horror movie. I did not even know that snakes had dens and that they leave pheromones which attract more snakes to the den. Does this Realtor seriously think they can sell this house? Surely, there is not someone crazy enough to sign up for this life of misery. I hope the most recent family who lived in this house, have “called out” the real-estate company, as somebody must have known about the snake infestation. Hopefully, the news about this house will spread and no other homeowner will be subjected to this slithery situation.
This house would literally be most people’s worst nightmare. The thought of waking up to snakes in your bed is horrifying and sounds like a scene from a horror movie. I did not even know that snakes had dens and that they leave pheromones which attract more snakes to the den. Does this Realtor seriously think they can sell this house? Surely, there is not someone crazy enough to sign up for this life of misery. I hope the most recent family who lived in this house, have “called out” the real-estate company, as somebody must have known about the snake infestation. Hopefully, the news about this house will spread and no other homeowner will be subjected to this slithery situation.
If you ever need to get rid of a a bunch of snakes double quick use a method my old Ag School techer tought me from down on the farm. It’s definitely not environmentally friendly, and may make a heck of a mess, but it is guaranteed to make them suckers flee like from Saint Patrick.
The secret is: Gasoline! And it works amazingly well. For some reason snakes are extremely sensitive to it and will do anything to get away. They absolutely loathe the smell. I would say a half cup or so of gas in a coffee mug would clear out that whole pile in the picture, or a good sized room if left to evaporate. This works especially well if you’re really not sure where the snake is at like under ground cover or hidden in a closet or something.
The problem with this is that now you’ve got a bunch of gas stinking up the place, not to mention causing a fire hazard, but the snakes WILL leave. The good part about this is that it works especially well with pit vipers which are usually poisonous. So take your pick.
Mothballs. Snakes HATE Mothballs. Start in the attic the first day, then the next lower level the next day, and so on down until they’re all out of the house. then put them in the yard around the house. Then air out the house because mothballs stink.
Absolutely there is a way out. Not sure about Idaho, our state (Ohio) requires a four page disclosure where the owner listing the house spells out everything that went wrong with it in the past four years. Pest infestations are included. The buyer must read and sign the disclosure as a part of the offer. If it comes up after the sale that the owner knew about something and it was not disclosed, the sale can be declared invalid. I am sure most states have similar laws.
Media (especially local) likes to sensationalize events like that without finding all the details.