You could hear them at night. It was disgusting.

The house we used to own in another state had a retaining wall in the back covered with English ivy. Never found a snake (or a rat) in it. But each spring and/or autumn I'd go out there with my pruners and have to thin out layers of old growth and dead vines. (It took hours and hours of hard work.) Maybe that kept the snakes away?

and they'll have a grand old time doing it, too. Pieces of rope that move on their own? What more could a cat want?

I don't know if snakes generally avoid cats, or if the cats just kill enough snakes to keep the population down.

Cleaned out my ivy bed yesterday and was bitten on the ankle by a snake with my 3 cats looking on. No more work for me in the ivy beds.