1. polymorph any object
2. yes it does. they are listed in order. that's why he makes a new line for every feat. yes, that's correct.
3. yeah.
4. ben-zayb mentioned warlock's summon swarm invocation, but really any reliable means of creating/summoning a swarm will work, such as spellcaster levels or a wand of same. once you get all the critters together, yell some dark speech at them and give them the power to cast spells, they'll do what you say since you're in control of the hivemind. if for whatever reason you wanted to control it directly, you could take vermin lord, but don't take vermin lord. it's the worst.