— TL;DR —
Looking for the most effective ways to clear the area of timber rattlesnakes.
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Hey guys, I am lucky enough to be starting to build an off grid homestead. I have selected the area on the land where I will build it.

That area is at the bottom of a ~35 to 40ft shear cliff. That area is heavily wooded and heavy brush.

When I went down there I saw two timber rattlesnakes very quickly and turned around as at the time was just getting the lay of the land and was just wearing tennis shoes.

Looking for the most effective ways to clear the area of timber rattlesnakes.

(My plan currently is to get snake chaps and heavy work boots designed to stop the snake from puncturing them just use a machete to kill the snakes). That said I’m wondering if anyone has a better way to do this.

Important constraints:

- No vehicle access for heavy machinery or cars.

- Cannot cause long term damage to the area (specifically no chemicals that could leaks into water or food down the road as we will be gardening and such out there.)

- Must be able to be done by one person. I will not be asking my girlfriend to go down there with me so whatever I do must be able to be done with just me.

- There are a ton of deep cracks into the rocks making it an ideal area for them to hibernate in the winter. I’m almost positive that the area is infested with them (or as much as they do being they are territorial from my understanding.)

I was at the foot of the cliff which is at the exit of a dried gorge and saw two timber rattlesnakes witching about one or two minutes being down there.

Thank you for taking the time to read!