Tomcat Rodent Station, Includes 1 Rodent Station with 4 Bait Securing Rods and 1 Security Key - Fits Rat or Mouse Sized Traps (Baits & Traps Sold Separately) - Use Indoors or Outdoors

This worked very well, I had a hard time opening it cause I don’t have very strong hands to push the key thing into the special hole to open it. I had help opening it and it’s very sturdy for outdoor use. The plastic is very thick and strong. It has prongs inside to set the bait on so it stays upright.

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.

The Tomcat Rodent Station is an excellent solution for dealing with pesky rodents. Its sturdy, tamper-resistant design provides peace of mind, securely keeping the bait away from children and pets. It's easy to use and refill with the included security key and bait rods, offering flexibility in how it's utilized. The durable design makes it suitable for use both indoors and outdoors. It's a reliable product that provides great value for managing pest control needs. Highly recommended for its safety features and construction! One warning, if you have pets you may want to use something different. I found that even though I kept my dog in the room with me and would not let him near the poison the little suckers brought the poison into my room. (I stopped using for that reason). But, it does work

Within a day of putting two of these out, we caught both rats that had been coming out at night. It worked extremely well. We used with the snap trap that goes inside and is sold separately. This thing is extremely hard to open with the included key. We have to pay open with the a knife while using the key. While this is kind of irritating, it does give peace of mind as we have pets and kids. They would never be able to open this thing! Both the snap traps and the housing unit are durable and will easily be able to be reused many many times. We are happy with our purchase.

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.

Key for opening the unit is extremely difficult to operate without tilting the unit and using excessive force. Also, you must release not one, but two locks, to open the unit. Wear heavy gloves or you will cut your hand on the metal key trying to force in far enough into the locks. The posts that you insert into the new unit to hold the bait fit way too loose in their holes. Poorly made. The Outpost bait station also made by Tomcat has a much better lock design, single lock with easy plastic key, and the posts for the bait are s snug fit.

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.