Hi, new to forums. I have an issue with overgrown area around a vacant house.

[JenJen]

I hope this is the right place for this kind of question. I've got a rattlesnake problem due to excessive build up of grass and letover fencing material, wood planks, corrugated metal sheets, etc littering this area. The ground is also extremely bumpy, as if gophers and sinkage have de-leveled the area over the years. What solutions are available to deal with this efficiently? I went at it today with one of my good hoes but I sheared up a corrugated galv. metal sheet with it, and while the edge looks no worse for wear (cant say the same for the sheet), Im hesitant to keep going if it'll absolutely damage it from hitting hidden sticks, logs, metal parts, etc. The grasses are almost knee high, filled with foxtails and making a nice breeding ground for snakes, and it also looks ugly and limits use of the area.

Where do I start? It seems like hauling off the trash first would be good, but its difficult to even see it.

 

[oneeye]

I would use a Weed Eater to knock down the high weeds. A weed eater should scare the rattlers out of the way due to the noise and high vibration, Use the hoe to pull away anything that could hide a snake. Work early in the morning while its still cold because snakes are slower in the cool weather. If you wait until its hot summer you will have very active snakes that are very fast and dangerous. If you have gophers and snakes then the snakes are there to eat the gophers. Work slowly with hoe at hand pulling off one layer at a time. The phantom snakes are the scariest snakes. Good luck

 

[Chuck]

As @oneeye has stated and wear tall boots and tough gloves.

 

[JenJen]

Thanks a lot!