Video link at URL below
KIFI (Idaho Falls, Idaho) 26 September 06 Snakes Invade St. Anthony Home
A home in St. Anthony was sold really cheap because it's infested with hundreds, maybe thousands, of snakes.
The owner Lyman Hepworth said he bought the house in March and didn't know about the 500 hibernating snakes in the basement.
The snakes are making their way back to the home to hibernate for the winter. A Local News 8 reporter even had a snake slither right over her shoe. When the owners discovered they had snakes in the spring, Hepworth said he was killing up to 50 snakes a day.
The snakes are simply garter snakes, but when you get hundreds and thousands of them it creates quite a problem. While Local News 8 was at the home, we saw at least six snakes in a matter of minutes.
This house has stood empty for eight years, and according to Fish and Game, they think the snakes have been using the house as a winter hibernation spot since it was empty. The snakes are just now returning for hibernation so there are not yet hundreds, but the owner says there will be soon enough.
Hepworth says when he first discovered he had snakes, he went down to the basement and reached for the light cord, only to find a 4-foot snake hanging right beside it. They've tried to plug up the holes but there are just too many. He said he also found a big ball of dead snakes in the basement and hundreds more living on the basement floor. Hepworth says he just wants them out of there so he and his wife can have a place to live.
"The house is inundated with them," he said.
The garter snake is a protected species, and after Hepworth found that out, he stopped killing them. Fish and Game says when and if these snakes take over personal property, action can be taken to kill or remove the snakes, only authorized by Fish and Game.
The people who sold the Hepworths the snake-infested home said they would buy it back, but the Hepworths are hanging on to it. They sent a video to ABC’s “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” hoping to get some help.
Snakes Invade St. Anthony Home
