A Mercer County family says their dream home turned into a months-long battle against snakes, with Jessica Perry reporting that she and her husband have found dozens of rat snakes inside and around their Salvisa house since moving in — including a six-foot snake she discovered in the basement just days before speaking out.
Perry told LEX 18 News that she fell in love with the Salvisa property after finding it on Zillow and made an offer the same day. The first few weeks in the home seemed perfect, Perry said, but after the family spotted a snake, she and her husband found two adults and several juveniles in the basement during the first week that followed.
In the months that followed, the family says it encountered dozens more rat snakes throughout the property. Rat snakes are nonvenomous constrictors that eat rodents, birds and eggs, and according to Kentucky Snake Identification, the gray ratsnake species is nonvenomous and found throughout the state — though nothing in the available reporting identifies the specific snakes found in the Perry home as that species.
Tracing the Snakes to a Years-Old Den
To figure out how the snakes were getting inside, Perry says the family hired a contractor to tear down the home's porch. The contractor reportedly found snake sheds leading into the foundation along with multiple eggs in what appeared to be a den that had existed for several years, per the account Perry gave to the station.
Perry also contacted an exterminator, who placed traps in the basement and around the home's exterior, she said. After cleaning out the affected area, the family sealed up openings around the house in hopes of keeping future snakes out. A Kentucky homeowner guide on snake exclusion recommends checking a home's foundation for cracks or gaps a quarter-inch or larger, noting that ratsnakes common in the state feed on rats, mice and chipmunks — the kind of prey that can draw snakes toward a house in the first place, according to Snakes: Information for Kentucky Homeowners.
A Six-Footer Turns Up Just Days Before Going Public
Despite the mitigation work, Perry said she found another snake, roughly six feet long, in the basement just days before she spoke to the station. She says the family has already spent a couple thousand dollars trying to deal with the problem, and a contractor has told her that replacing part of the basement could run between $4,000 and $5,000.
Perry also said a neighbor recalled encountering snakes in the home's basement as a child, and that the property's former owner reportedly referred to it as “the snake house,” according to Perry. She said the previous owner never disclosed any snake infestation before the sale.
What Kentucky Law Says About Disclosure
Kentucky's seller-disclosure statute, KRS 324.360, provides a form for sellers to disclose property conditions and applies to sales and purchases involving single-family residential dwellings when a person licensed under the chapter receives compensation, according to the Kentucky Revised Statutes. The statute's text does not establish whether any particular seller in this case violated the law or what liability, if any, might follow.
For now, Perry says the family hopes to raise their son in the Salvisa home and eventually get the snake problem under control.
