Tims advice about keeping the yeard clean and not having food in bird feeders and such spilt on teh ground is probably most important. Waging war on them does not help at all, in many cases it can actually increase your numbers. Rattlesnakes have territories that they compete for and protect although usually a certain number of males will have overlaps an tolerate each other within these. When you kill a snake you open a territory and you get a number of youngsters coming in to try and fill that gap. It's best to let your current population become your barrier.



Rattlesnakes have good memories and often will not return to places they have been captured or unduly harassed. Now if you catch a snake in one side of your yard and relocated it outside your property, you may find it again on the other side of the yeard, but after a time or two, they often learn to circumvent the property entirely. There have been a number of relocation studies in which atrox and horridus learn to completely circumvent campgrounds where they have been captured. It has worked for my mom, she has atrox, scutes,cerastes and occasional tigris and molossus on her property. She used to kill a couple of snakes a week (she knows my stance on this but she has horses and dogs so she was always afaid for them). I bought her some tongs about ten years ago and taught her to relocate the snakes to the outside of the property. It is working well, she no finds only one or two rattlesnakes a year within the fenced area of the property and barn. The population around the property is still normal. Her neighbors are so impressed they have gone out and bought tongs to just move the snakes. Good luck, hope you don't have to resort to anything drastic,



cheers,



Rich

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