Tomcat Rodent Station, 1 Station with Security Key

These bait stations are a good size, well designed, handle a generous amount of bait, and are secure against non-targeted species. I found them to be slightly cheaper and slightly larger than the competition, which is nice. They use the "bait chunks" which you have to buy separately, but I have a good stable of these stations now and have reused them extensively. They are a little tricky to open with the key, but not impossibly so. Overall a good product for what it is supposed to do.

Seems to work good it's not gonna hurt any animals that eat the dead mice

This bait box works well, fits 8 chunks of poisonous bait. However, it is very difficult to open. The "key" provided is all but worthless. A screw driver or other slender metal object is much more helpful in slipping under the edge and snapping it open. I personally have found the handle of a teaspoon (one with a flat, slender handle) is the best tool for me in opening this contraption. Other than the rather challenging ordeal of opening it, this bait box is great. However, if you have other animals (such as raccoons or possoms) who might get access to it, you should probably find a way of anchoring the box down (wedging it in or tying it down), because they will steal it and you may not be able to locate it once they take it away. Beyond this, I have found it to be very helpful, and my rodent population is declining noticeably since I have begun using it.

I had a problem with rats and mice getting into the attic and garage because the neighbors next door had started keeping farm animals with all the things that brings to a parcel of land which evidently includes rats and mice. All I know is after I deployed this bad boy, I no longer had a problem with rats or mice. They were simply gone. Every once in a while I would find one dead in my flower beds but it wasn't very often and at least they weren't in my house. They are a beast to open but if you actually follow the directions, they aren't that hard really to open. Baiting them is easy and I really like that my dogs can't get into them because well they can't fit and there is no way they could get them open on their own. Well designed and works great.

Using these outside and in the basement. I believe they are working. Something has been eating them. Haven't seen any activity.

For $10, the plastic box is acceptable quality. It should last several years in an outdoor environment and it's thick enough to endure several years of sunlight before the plastic becomes brittle and cracked. However, it is insanely difficult to open due to 2 very poorly designed locks that secure the rodent bait inside the clamshell box. There are 2 latch tabs on the bottom half of the shell that secure and lock against the top half of the shell. Tomkat provides a a thin brass key with 2 short legs that fits into 2 slots located adjacent to aforementioned tabs. Supposedly, if you push down and out, it pushes the bottom clamshell down and away from the tab, thus releasing it. You then repeat the process for the 2nd tab lock. The problem is the the brass key is too small and too thin and because of poor manufacturing tolerances, the two prongs of the keys don't match up with the slots cut into the clamshell alongside each tab. Because it takes a great deal of force to pry open the clamshells, I always end up bending the keys because they are simply too thin to do the job. Why they came up with such a stupid key design is beyond my comprehendsion. Obviously, they wanted to make the lock child-proof, but if the lock design also makes it adult-proof, it's an embarassingly idiotic design. My suggestion: Throw the damn key away. The easiest way to open up the clamshell is to use a butter knife or a small putty knife and pry the damn thing open. If you're going to do this, be advised that one or both of the tabs will break off, but you'll probably want to remove these tabs anyways with a pair of snips. Once you get rid of the tabs, the clamshell open and closes, but it won't lock. The solution is quite simple. Drill a 1/4" hole through one of the tab slots for each lock and secure the clamshell with a small zip tie. When you need to open the clamshell, clip off the zip ties. When you need to lock the clamshell, just put new zip ties. As for effectiveness of the trap (aside from the dopey lock design), it's a box. It's not the box that kills the rodents, it's the bait. The Tomcat Chunx bait works very well. The mice like it, they eat it, and then they die. It took 2 days for the 2 mice that have been hanging around my yard to discover the bait and die a good death from gastronomic poisoning. But it was the bait that did the job, not this awful trap. In hindsight, I didn't need this box. I have an old Plano fishing lure box lying around unused in my garage, not much bigger than the Tomkat Rodent Station. I could have removed accordion trays, drilled openings with a hole cutter for the mice to enter and assembled some bait rods using wire from clothes hangers drilled into and glued to a 1/4" plywood base to secure the bait. Any old plastic box will probably do, so long it's a similar size. If it's a clear box, paint it with plastidip and leave it out in the sun for 3 days until the plastic smell disappears. The mice need their privacy when they eat, hence the need for paint. Bottomline: Anyone who buys Tomcat Rodent Station had better well be prepared to deal with the stupid locks. You're going to spend a half hour trying to open up the box and bending the key, so like the majority of the people who reviewed the box, you'll end prying it open with a butter knife or a screw driver and breaking the tabs off. Advice: Find a better bait station or make your own.

I have found that the best way to get rid of mice is to set poison bait stations OUTSIDE the house, killing them before they ever get the chance to come in. I've used various home made contraptions over the years to make the poison blocks available to mice but not to other critters, while keeping the poison protected from rain etc. Figured I'd give the Tomcat Rodent Station a try, since that is pretty much what it's made for. It's a decent sized plastic box - the overall dimensions are about right for outdoor use. It's big enough that it won't blow away in the wind or get lost under snow. And it holds 4 bait blocks, which is plenty. So it gets the job done. I have several nits to pick though: 1) It is nigh on IMPOSSIBLE to open. The supplied key is completely useless. You'll need 2 large flathead screwdrivers or something similar - one to pry it open with and the other to hold it open as you pry a little more. It is unnecessarily difficult to say the least! I get that the point is to keep kids and pets from gaining access to poison, but c'mon... Can't they come up with a better design that that? 2) Bait blocks not included. Which makes this a little bit expensive, considering it is really just a plastic box. 3) It includes 4 metal rods, which can hold the bait blocks in a vertical position and keep them from falling out if the box gets jostled. That's great, but my bait blocks (despite being Tomcat brand) are not drilled with holes to receive the rods. The picture on the box indicates that Tomcat does make drilled bait blocks, but I don't know where to buy them. So for me, the rods are pretty much useless.

Very easy to set up, well made.

Does the job well, separating the container can be difficult, but not impossible

I could not unlock it with the key supplied , at the end I returned the item and got my money back. There may be a special trick to unlock it but I found it way too hard to unlock.