diff --git a/ncclient/manager.py b/ncclient/manager.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/ncclient/manager.py
+++ b/ncclient/manager.py
@@ -110,7 +110,8 @@ def connect_ssh(*args, **kwds):
     global VENDOR_OPERATIONS
     VENDOR_OPERATIONS.update(device_handler.add_additional_operations())
     session = transport.SSHSession(device_handler)
-    session.load_known_hosts()
+    if "hostkey_verify" not in kwds or kwds["hostkey_verify"]:
+        session.load_known_hosts()
 
     try:
        session.connect(*args, **kwds)
Specifying hostkey_verify=False should not load_known_hosts

If the user deliberately wants to ignore host verifications, loading the known_hosts (which takes a considerable time) is useless.