In 2011, Ben Sessions and Amber Sessions found the perfect five bedroom house in the rural community of Rexburg, Idaho. They were excited to find such a great deal, a five bedroom home for just under $180,000.
Ben and Amber were looking for the perfect home so they could grow their family. They already had two young boys, and Amber was pregnant with their third child. At the time of purchase, one small detail was brought up at closing – a document they had to sign that noted a known snake infestation.
Their real estate agent reassured the Sessions that the snake story was all fabricated, made up by the previous owners to get out of their house mortgage.
So the Sessions bought the house in Rexburg, Idaho and moved in, not knowing that thousands of snakes were about to greet them at their doorstep.
The Snake House in Idaho was No Rumor
Everyone in the Idaho town knew about the snake infestation, and called this house the “snake house.” The neighbor, Dustin Chambers, felt sorry for the new couple, but by the time they had moved in, it was already too late.
A Startling Snake Discovery
Ben and Amber Sessions quickly realized that the rumor of snakes was very real. Garter snakes began coming out of the woodwork, literally. Ben took a stick and tapped it on the roof, and could hear garter snakes brushing their scales up against each other. Ben had to removed vinyl siding on his home, and was startled as garter snakes popped out, one after another from the hole in the siding.
Then Ben set up a chicken coop. As he was moving scrap metal, he noticed two snakes slither away. As he continued to find garter snakes, he would take buckets with him, and just fill the buckets with these harmless garter snakes.
Eventually, Ben had to go under the house through the crawl space, and the number of snakes he saw resembled an Indiana Jones movie. Fortunately, Ben does not have Ophidiophobia, which is the proper term for an abnormal fear of snakes.
The day Ben had to kill 42 garter snakes in one day, was the final straw.
The Snake House in Idaho was Foreclosed
Ben and Amber Sessions left the house in December 2009, one day after their daughter was born. The only way out for the Sessions Family was foreclosure, after they had signed the document acknowledging the snake infestation. They could not legally get out of their mortgage, short of filing for Bankruptcy.
Ben said, “We’re not going to pay for a house of snakes.” Ben’s main concern was that his wife was going to miscarry their baby, and he wasn’t about to risk it.
Living on Top of a Snake Den is Like Being in “Satan’s Lair”
The Sessions said there were so many garter snakes in the yard, it would appear that the grass was moving. At night, the Sessions would lie awake and hear the snakes slithering in the walls. It was hardly better in the daytime, because of the strong musk the snakes had released to mark the well water on the property.
Throughout the horrific experience, Amber Sessions referred to the house as “Satan’s lair…That’s the only way to really explain it.” To this day, they still have nightmares about their terrible experience.
The cable station, Animal Planet, documented the Sessions’ bad house experience on their television series, “Infested.”
The Snake House is Back on the Market: Sad but True
More than a year after the Sessions abandoned the home in Rexburg, Idaho, the house went back on the market (without any solution for the snake problem).
Ben Sessions is appalled. “It’s not right to continue to sell this home,” he said.
The local neighbors in Rexburg, Idaho now warn prospective home buyers of the snake den, just in case the slimy realtor “forgets” to mention about the snake infestation.
Watch the Young Turks discuss the Idaho infestation in the following video clip.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzFwen0y8k8&w=750&rel=0]
Talk about a sanitation nightmare! I remember seeing this on a documentary on the discovery channel. Their musk was getting into their water supply.
Yeah Chris, it was getting musky around the water hole. It is pretty freaky and you feel sorry for this family for their mistake.
O god. I would really kill all those snakes if I can! Juts to have a good night sleep without worrying whether it would slither its way on your bed or not.
I wonder how creepy it would be to hear snakes slithering around in the walls around the bed. That would be a nightmare!
interesting zack ( i hate snakes :/).
You know, sometimes it takes facing your fear to overcome it. Have you ever considered catching a garter snake with your bare hands?
no and never 🙂
I personally had to remove black widow spiders from my backyard, and since that event, have gotten over my fear of spiders.
OMG, how can anyone in their right mind can sleep with that in the house? jeez
Jim,
It takes a special person to put up with thousands of snakes. Perhaps even someone as eccentric as a “Reptile Man” who is born with scales instead of skin.
Do you know anything about the current (fall 2013) status of the house? And how the snake removal’s going? Or not…
Personally, I think the city/town should condemn it and remove the house. Turn it into a snake park or something.
Frankly, if the reLator lied to the family by telling them that the snakes weren’t actually living in the house, then they should have been found liable. But further still, THE BANK THAT SOLD THE HOUSE MOST DEFINITELY SHOULD HAVE BEEN HELD LIABLE. And yet what did they do? They put it right back on the market. The best thing the Sessions could have and frankly should have done was to simply burn the place to the ground right after filing and winning a bankruptcy case. That would have prevented anymore sleezeball realators and bankers from ruining another innocent family’s life over a house completely infested with snakes. It seems that outright greed has no limits to what it’ll do to people in this country.