Just a warning!!!!!

Aint seen any snakes outside, but had a possible rat snake taking up residence in our bedroom. First encounter, i was out of town working n it freaked the wife out. Sec time, we had just returned with groceries and the wife was fixin to go use the restroom and it slithered off the night stand right by the bed. That freaked her out again. She put moth balls out the first time, evidently it didnt help, so i put out some snake away from tsc, sprinkling it on both sides and behind the bed n night stands, then sprinkled it under the bathroom n closet door the nxt morning and put it out in the 2 mice holes in the bathroom. So far, no more sign of the thing, so i guess she needs to sprinkle it out in the other 3 bedrooms.
Anybody got any other mixtures to run the mice and snakes away? The wife was told a heavy mint mixture for the mice (evidently it dont work) and the mothballs dont work for snakes or mice, but the snake away is made from sulpher powder, cedar oil extract and some other kind of natural oil extract that smells good. In east tx when i was making homemade blackpowder, that seemed to keep both mice and snakes out, but had to stop using it bc of my stepmom's lung leasions and asthmia. I havent tried to make anymore bc u cant get 2 of the 3 minerals at the drugstores anymore and only place iv found it is online, which im sure is highly monitored. Anbody know where a person can get bulk (5-10lbs) saltpeter and sulpher powder locally in central tx or the lufkin tx area?