So glad that Hissy has found a good temporary home. I've always loved snakes and have had them as pets since I was a child. Later, when I was in grad school and living in an apartment just off campus, my much younger brother brought a rat snake home from scout camp. Unfortunately, my father, who was terrified of snakes, announced that either the snake went or he would go, so naturally I took him off my brother's hands and installed him in a nice herpetarium in my apartment (at which point I discovered just who my friends were and weren't!) Kaa (as I named him, from Kipling of course) stayed with me until I had to move to another location, at which point I found a new home for him.I would love to have a snake pet again, but now I'm in a New York City apartment and haven't the room it would need. I'm hoping that Hissy will find a wonderful new home. Thanks to you for being so kind in rescuing him even though you weren't familiar with snakes!

I looked into some pretty specific county level snake data and it appears that many of the DC area counties do support a few small isolated copperhead populations, so I retract my skepticism of your neighbor's id of the snakes (Looks like I need to go looking more the next time I'm visiting relatives in Montgomery County) Unfortunately I can't think of any vegetation that won't be a potentially attractive place for snakes. Even if you plant nothing at all, nature holds no guarantees so it's a matter of how important a slight reduction in risk of snakebite from very low to very very low is and how important having an attractive natural yard is.

Chances are that the Worm Snakes are abundant beneath the surface so while the ones you move may well take a while to get back others are likely to appear. Snakes can travel long distances so in theory they could come back eventually but whether they would bother or not is another story. I'd say if you're committed to the strategy you could try 100 yards or so and see what happens. But they're likely not doing any harm so it may not be worth the very minor effort of moving them.

I have a big problem with snakes around the house at the farm. The ground snakes (puffadders) are not too much of a problem apart from being poisonous. They are easily kept away using ammonia sprayed at the doors, or a sprinkling of granular swimming pool chlorine. The problem are the semi arboreal and arboreal snakes (rinkhals - a type of cobra, cape cobra and black mamba) The rinkhals are often found around houses and barns, and can be a very big problem, especially for pets. The mamba are very aggressive and territorial, and easily dispatch dogs, cats wild game and of course humans. They are attracted to the house because of bats, squirrels and wood hoopoes. The easies way of dealing with this group in all honesty is with a 12 Gauge. The shotgun plays havoc with the paint finishes, thatch roof and furniture, but any damage is preferable to having a resident mamba in your kitchen! I have noticed that all the snakes are repelled by chlorine (the best for durability are the chlorine tablets from swimming pools). I have heard that the 'harpic' chlorine toilet deodorisers work as well, but I have not tried them myself. These might be the best bet for you, as you can hang them on your benches. I have also heard that most aromatic sprays such as citronella mosquito repellent work as well, but I doubt they will have any form of lasting effect. A few years ago we got a few solar powered snake repellers https://thehomedweller.com/best-snake-repellents/ which were manufactured in Australia. They are meant to work by making a vibration every minute or so. They might work on Australian snakes, but seemed to have no effect on our African snakes at all.