no, they are not any more difficult. Actually, they might be easier! People often underestimate the difficulty of ball pythons. They are often sold as a "beginner" snake due to their docile nature and relatively small size (at least in males), but they require higher than average temps, and tolerate a fairly small range of humidity. My ball python cage is the most sifisticated setup I have (an undertank heat pad on a rheostat, florescent light for day/night cycle, and two heat lamps, one for day and one for constant overhead heat). That's one reason you see them mostly up for adoption, compared to corn snakes that are sold in large numbers too. People have trouble keeping their health up, especially since they stress so easily, and usually are picky eaters to begin with.
The thing about the BRBs is that they have very specific needs. These needs are not hard to provide, but you do have to take the time to make sure everything is right. Mine is currently in a 20 gallon cage, and I'm getting ready to step her up into a 30 long. Basically, you just need to provide a very humid hide, a large water bowl as they really like to soak, and high humidity. They require very little fresh air, so you can cover almost the entire top of the cage and allow very little air flow. Use cypress mulch and some moss, and keep half the cage fairly damp. They require relatively low but constant temps. They can die in temps at 90 degrees. For more specific set up instructions, check with the people in the rainbow boa forum; they are very nice and helpful. Once you get the setup right, they don't need much work. One thing I do differently than most of them, is that I DO use a small heat lamp to provide a small temp gradient. This means I have to mist the cage once or twice a week, but I check on them all that often anyways. And my seems to be thriving now! (got her at a pet shop that almost killed her from dehydration...took months to get her to eat a regular meal, and she didn't even grow any for 6 months..now she's growing like a weed!)
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-David
Check out my pet pics at:
http://www.myspace.com/obx_fisherman
1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay) RIP 
0.0.2 baby corns (Romulus and Remus)
- 1 normal, 1 ghost
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.0 amazon tree boa (Pegasus)
1.0 colombian boa (Poseidon)
0.1 albino san diego gopher snake (Athena)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 dog (Luke)
the wife's pets:
1.0 bearded dragon (Leonidas)
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)
0.1 Boxer (Zoe)
NEWEST ADDITIONS:
1.0 adult Dumeril's boa
0.0.1 baby yellow amazon tree boa
