A .22 six shooter with bird shot is always close at hand.
When we first moved to the desert, we killed every rattler we saw.
Shortly thereafter, we realized they have a job to do, as we soon had a rodent problem.
I figured there must be a delicate balance in the system, so I quit killing all but the ones that were around the house.
If I was able to, I'd snare them and walk them away and release them.
It made me feel a little bit better about the whole thing, but it didn't help much.
But then when I learned that a helicopter ride and the associated hospital bill could reach into the hundreds of thousands, I decided to go back to whacking rattlers.
The bull snakes out here look an awful lot like rattlers, and will even imitate the shaking of their tails.
I pay close attention to make sure that I'm not killing the bull snakes.
Not only do they eat rodents, but supposedly they take rattlers out too.