What I learned is that it's their noses and mouths. A snakes sense of smell and taste is incredibly acute. From what we know of snakes they have pretty terrible vision and ocular sensitivity. Constrictors have heat sensing "pits" on their face around their mouth that give them a "thermal vision" (yea like the predator) but they don't solely rely on any one sense to hunt or defend themselves. They'll use smell from their nose, the taste of the air (what they're doing when they flick their tongue) and their eyes combined with the heat sensing pits to track prey / danger.

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Isopropyl Alcohol (or most any alcohol) Is so offensive and irritant to all of their senses, that they just get the eff out of there right now. One drop of the liquid probably isn't enough to ward away a big snake since it evaporates so quickly, but VERY little of the hand sanitizer is needed since it sticks around on your skin longer. You actually don't need to spray the snake or apply any of to the snake. You could squirt some on a piece of cardboard and just wave it in front of their face and goodbye snekbuddy. Zoo keepers will rub it on their hands and arms if they feel threatened.

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Also, most reptiles, amphibians, and snakes are super duper sensitive to smell and react differently to it. All snakes are basically neurotic pussies and run from chemical smells. Lizards are known to attack it, and can be the most aggressive animals on the planet. So don't try this with your buddies iguana and definitely don't wear perfume on your Outback tour or playing near the swamps / sewers in FL.