First, you must catch a Metallo (those shiny silver ditto-esque blobs) in the Ziggurat in the desert. Evolve it into a Metallodious (you're gonna want another unevolved Metallo for the Barricadus recipe later), and it learns the ability Escape. This is instantaneous and 100% effective, and if you send it out with two lower level or very slow starters, and gets the first move every time.
I managed to cut my farm times down by at least half, probably 2/3. It's so much quicker that immediately after I adopted this method, I caught 2 hatchlings and 2 starters in the span of literally 20-30 minutes (I was so excited haha). Now all I have left is a Snorkling, but with this method, it'll soon be mine!