AEA, I was going to hatch a mantis case for my vivariums last spring (I had an eggcase of the African mantid Sphidromantis lineolea) but I didn't mist the egg case often enough and eventually forgot to keep doing it (it takes two months or more of misting at least once and preffereably twice daily). For a better chance, I suggest buying a humidifier and timer set to run 1 hour dawn and dusk so the egg case terrarium (or clear rubbermaid bin) is kept evenly humid at the right times (and allowed to dry out while the lights were on). I have a great book called "The Praying Mantids" by Preet Wells Wells & Hurd it's published by the Johns Hopkins University Library so it's quality info and very indepth (500-600 pages) on every aspect of mantid life, raising and phisiology, it also details experiments that you can conduct should you choose to. It's also a very costly book, mine was $112 with shipping from Amazon.com
Also be sure to buy a bunch (at least a pack of 100) of those quart size containers I mentioned because you must seperate each baby mantid from the others or they will eat eachother alive in a frenzy of death and violence (same with their breeding). Each egg case can have 50-400 nymph mantids (all with hungry mouths) so you'll need a good storage facility til you raise them to roughly their 3rd morph before they're large enough to sell to other hobbyists. BTW I'll buy some when you get them to their 3rd morph/exoskeleton shed stage-private message or email me if you wanna work something out!
Nathaniel, I've been fooling with fruitflies off and on for a couple years or so, and I've never had a problem with them at all, but like I said, I use the Fruit flies from the reptile shop who are unable to fly and cause trouble in the house.
To have a problem with fruitflies you need something for them to eat as they only live about 200 hours-did you have lots rotten fruit/food in your trashcan or sink garbage disposal? I'm not trying to imply anything, I'm just curious as to how you could get an infestation and become such a problem for you.