Sill--you mentioned getting a terrier to keep the rodents down. I think that is part of the problem. My 14-year old hound passed away about 6 weeks ago. Coincidentally, rodent pop has increased. The remaining 2 dogs, lab and dasch-mix are no help. The little dash is too beaten down with valley fever to be the rodent hunter he could be. And the lab doesn't care about anything unless it involves a ball or stick to chase.
So...at one point I might have tried snails, but the little nursery owner guy's story about making the snails involved slime. Lots and lots of slime. Wait, no, that wasn't him. The slime story came from the woman who wrote 1/4 Acre Farm. She raised snails for a big escargot party, and there was too much slime in the prep.