http://linuxcommando.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-disable-ssh-host-key-checking.html

Yes you can.

Try launching it from expect, or using an expect module for your favorite scripting language. I do this all the time in python, and in regular tcl/expect.

#!/usr/bin/python

import pexpect, sys, time, re

SSH_NEWKEY = 'Are you sure you want to continue connecting'



  ssh = pexpect.spawn('ssh user-name@%s'%(host))

  retval = ssh.expect([SSH_NEWKEY, '[Pp]assword:', pexpect.EOF, pexpect.TIMEOUT]

, timeout = TIMEOUT)

  time.sleep(1)



  if retval == 0:

    ssh.sendline ('yes')

    i = ssh.expect(['[Pp]assword: ', pexpect.EOF, pexpect.TIMEOUT], timeout = TIMEOUT)

    time.sleep(1)

    if i > 0:

.....

OR

#!/usr/bin/expect

......

proc myconnect { ip pass enable } {

  if { $ip != "" } {

    spawn ssh admin@$ip 

    expect_before {

      "Connection closed by $ip" {

        catch { close -i $spawn_id }

        return 0

      }

    }

    expect {

    # anticipate connection issues along the way and not get hung up

      timeout {

        return 0

      }

      "Connection refused" {

        return 0

      }

      "Are you sure you want to continue connecting" {

        send "yes\r"

        exp_continue

      }

      "Do you want to change the host key on disk" {

        send "yes\r"

        exp_continue

      }

.......