About New England Herpetoculture
Your One-Stop Vivarium Shop!tm
NEHERP is the bioactive terrarium specialty shop that zoos, museums, nature centers, breeders, and other professionals rely on. Our team is proud to offer excellent customer service, the most complete vivarium informational resources, and the best selection of bioactive terrarium supplies online. We're a family owned business that manufactures our own products, grows our own plants, and cultures our own microfauna. We take pride in the quality of everything we do, and care deeply for the industry we support. Our goal is to responsibly help people bring a piece of the wilderness indoors, and help make the animals in our care as comfortable as possible. Learn more about us using the buttons below.
About Our Animals
Animals Are Our Passion, Not Our Business's Bottom Line ♥
We aren't a pet store, and we don't purchase animals for resale. We work with animals because we love learning about them, and learning from them. As of 2022, we've got a couple dozen incredible live animals at our shop, and the primary reason for their continued residence is to help us further our understanding of each species' environmental requirements. Designing, building, maintaining, and observing a wide variety of species-specific terrarium environments has helped us gain a particularly solid understanding of animals and their ideal "nature-replicating" environments. Those experiences have provided us with the information necessary to author (#1 Google Ranked) articles, develop products, select appropriate plant species, and more. We hope that the (totaly free) information our articles provide will continue to push the hobby towards responsible & professional-grade husbandry.
Our shop very rarely has animals available, so we encourage all of our clients to patronize a rescue organization or private breeder when looking to acquire a new animal. If you are having trouble sourcing a certain species, don't hesitate to shoot us an email! Since hobbyist and commercial breeders make up a significant portion of our client-base, we're always happy to help support our rescue and breeder customers by sending business their way. This policy helps our customers gain access to healthy captive-bred animals while ensuring the breeders and rescues who support us gain some business too. From an ethical standpoint, supporting breeders and rescues helps small organizations, curbs the demand for wild-caught animals, and often yields the healthiest pet.
Our business has never engaged in, or supported the sale/trade of wild caught animals. Many extremely common and inexpensive species found in pet shops (Anoles, House Geckos, Golden Geckos, Fire Bellied Toads, Iguanas, Turtles, Green Tree Frogs, and many more) are very often wild-caught. Before purchasing an animal, we strongly recommend doing a little research on it, in an effort to ensure you aren't accidentally supporting the wild caught animal trade.
Meet The Team
Mike S.
Founder / Co-Owner
Mike has cared for exotic pets and live vivarium environments since he was a student, and has worked with over 70 species of animals over the years. Having grown up in and around his family's wholesale flora business, he spent much of his life working with and shipping perishables before opening New England Herpetoculture. Mike is responsible for product and business development, marketing (which we rarely do), and website development. On the increasingly rare occasion that Mike isn't working, he spends his time gaming, working on cars, building stuff in his shop, playing guitar, pranking members of the crew, and spending time with Jess & their son.
Random Trivia: While carrying a heavy vivarium down some stairs, Mike broke his ankle in two places but managed to save the enclosure on his way down.
Jessica S.
Manager / Co-Owner
NEHERP's Momma! Jessica manages customer service, does the books, and helps out a little bit in every department. She's worked with over 35 different species of Reptiles & Amphibians over the years. Having grown up in and around garden clubs, Jess put her horticultural knowledge to work when she developed the Horticulture division in 2012, and helped design the current growing facility in 2021. When Jess isn't managing NEHERP, she's busy being an awesome Mom to her son. Jess is also a gamer, pianist, singer, and unreasonably good cook.
Random Trivia: Jess has a strange fear of chalk and talc-like products and an uncanny ability to remember customers and their corresponding info. If you've ever watched Bob's Burgers, Jess is a lot like Linda only slightly more ridiculous.
Mike W.
Assistant To The Regional Manager
Assistant Manager
Mike W joined the team in 2013, just after the retail shop merged with the warehouse. Mike is an amphibian and reptile breeder, vivarium enthusiast, and horticulturist. Over the years he's become the company's Assistant Manager, overseeing all of the basic operations at NEHERP. He spends his spare time growing terrarium plants, working with exotic animals, listening to great music, and hanging out with his dog Sozo. Mike is a great guy who has the client's best interest in mind every day, and the company wouldn't be the same without him.
Random Trivia: We suspect Mike W may lead a double life as some sort of secret invincible ninja. He has displayed the ability to catch lightning-fast species using bare hands in a way that seems almost unnatural. He once fell off the back of a truck and had a 6-foot rack full of supplies fall on top of him without sustaining injury. He totaled his car during a lunch break and returned to work as if nothing had happened. When sledgehammers and crowbars failed to take down a wall during one of our construction projects, Mike W. kicked the wall down while wearing sneakers. He disappears and reappears in different places, keeps nunchucks in his car, and can do back flips. Is Mike W. a Ninja disguised as a reptile expert? You decide.
Emma O.
Customer Service + Animal Husbandry
Emma is a former customer with a passion for animal husbandry and exhibit design. With a Bachelor's degree in Captive Wildlife Care and Education & a minor in Zoology, Emma brings a wonderful pool of knowledge to the table. At the shop, her primary responsibilities include customer service and animal husbandry. Occasionally she'll help out in Logistics too by customizing customer vivarium kits, as well as help process orders. Through 2025, Emma and Mike are planning to work together on publishing a bunch of new articles, in an effort to help progress the hobby in a responsible & productive way. At home, she cares for a small handful of critters ranging from fish to Geckos. When she's not helping out at NEHERP, she spends her time helping to maintain the live animal department of a Children's Museum in CT.
Cameron B.
Logistics Supervisor
Cameron had been an animal enthusiast throughout his educational career, and he put his knowledge & passion to work when he joined the team back in 2015. After 5 years packing orders and Graduating College in 2021, Cam has become the Logistics Department Supervisor, and is running the show behind the scenes. It's difficult to list all of the things Cam does at the shop, but he basically has his hand in every part of order fulfillment. Cameron has worked in every department at our shop, and knows nearly everything there is to know about NEHERP. If you've ordered from us since the beginning of 2022, Cameron helped to get your order to you. Beyond order-related stuff, Cam has also helped out in our Rhacodactylus, Correlophus, Phelsuma, and Lepidodactylus breeding projects. If we had to pick a cheesy inspirational poster that suits Cameron's persona, it'd probably be "Enthusiasm Is Contagious".
Random Trivia: Cameron is also sometimes called "Camel", "AberCam Lincoln", "Camala Harris", "Alexander Camilton", "The Grand Camyon", and "Pablo EsCambar". Despite the silly names, good 'ol Camelot runs a pretty tight & well-disciplined department.
(NEHERP Shirts = Logistics Team)
Logistics Team
Logistics
Our Logistics department is the heart of our shop, and where all sorts of work gets done. There's a whole lot more to our logistics department than boxing stuff up and shipping it along, although that is part of the deal. Our team members are also tasked with researching specific husbandry requirements to ensure plant packs, substrate kits, and more are pulled accurately for all of the species our customers work with.
The core our amazing logistics team includes Cameron, Hailey, Corey, and Jeremy. When we get busy, Logan, Mike W, and Jessica all swing down to help get orders packed as effectively & efficiently as possible. Hijinks, nonsense, and "New England Warehouse language" are all common, despite Cameron's acute eye for efficiency. Visitors can expect tape gun noises, the light hum of our Substrate Mixing machine in the distance, and the smell of freshly baked wood decor coming out of the giant oven.
Logan D.
Production
Logan is responsible for producing, bagging, and labeling most of the NEHERP brand hard supplies. Between substrates, leaf litter, plant mounting kits, and dozens of other products, Logan helps to ensure we keep up with demand with an awesome positive attitude.
Julissa B.
Grow Room
Julissa has been helping Mike W. to effectively operate our grow room since late 2023, and has been doing an amazing job of it. Thanks to her, the team is able to locate any species of plant customers order on her new white board organizational system. (Complete with illustrated frogs!) 
Jeremy K.
Logistics (Seasonal)
Bonjour! Jeremy is a college student and customer of NEHERP who expertly cares for a handful of Reptiles & Amphibians at home. Thanks to an educational background in horticulture and experience with different animal species, Jeremy brings a whole lot to the team. His sarcastic, dry, and absolutely awesome sense of humor keeps the logistics department rolling, and has nearly made Mike S. fall off of a ladder laughing on at least two occasions. OSHA violations aside, this place just wouldn't be the same without Jeremy. In early 2024 Jeremy moved to a seasonal position, after accepting a new position at the USDA while he works towards his Master's degree.
The VOAG Crew
Greenhouse Propagation, Production, and more!
Our company accepts student members of CT's VOAG program for on-the-job training. Students gain knowledge and experience working with live plants, exotic animals, microfauna, and more. Less exciting benefits of the job include instilling young'uns with work ethic, which there's no shortage of at our warehouse! When jobs are available, each student member is able to apply for their own preferred specialization. If you are a central-Connecticut high school student or teacher interested in this program, please consider applying or contacting us! (No worries students, our business doesn't accept "volunteer" labor. You'll get paid the same as everyone else! ♥)
Michael Gus
Manager Of The Department Of Cuteness
Jess & Mike's pride and joy, little Michael Gus came to work with his mom and dad every day until he started Kindergarten. He enjoys watching frogs & snakes move around in their terrariums, and spends plenty of time running around the office at the shop. One of Michael Gus's first words was frog, and by the time he was 14 months old he could identify and name Frogs, Snakes, Geckos, and Lizards. By the time he had turned two, Michael had become fairly proficient at watering plants in our grow rooms. More recently, he's begun helping the folks at USPS and FedEx when they come to pick up boxes at the end of the day.
A Brief History of Our Company
Posted by Mike S. and last updated 03/22
I was an animal enthusiast throughout most of my childhood, and having the opportunity to do this as a career is absolutely surreal. Below, I've tried to document a rough outline of the events which brought this place from concept to creation.
2001-2007: Hobbyist Years
My enthusiasm for this hobby started back while I was in high school, where I cared for a handful of different Reptiles & Amphibians. I found providing the nicest enclosures I could for them to be incredibly rewarding, and enjoyed watching the little critters and learning about their native habitats. A little later while I was a working college student, I tried my hand at being a hobbyist-scale breeder of Leopard Geckos, Day Geckos, Bearded Dragons, and a few more common species. Each season that passed helped me learn a bit more about the hobby, and I became more enthusiastic as time went on.
Note For 2024+:
The husbandry conundrums listed in this paragraph (left) are still relevant, but far less prevalent than they once were. I'm thrilled to say that many of the corporate pet stores have greatly improved their husbandry practices over these past 20+ years. Unnecessarily wild caught animals are still a concern, but websites like Morph Market have empowered small-scale breeders and offered consumers a direct source for better quality captive bred animals. Good husbandry is winning the battle. ♥
As my experience level grew, I couldn't help but notice some ugly truths about the industry. Visiting corporate pet shops ended up being an emotionally taxing experience for me, as I came to terms with just how low the husbandry standards were at the time. Some memories of what I saw in those stores have stuck with me for years. Even as a young newbie with limited experience, I knew a lot of what I was seeing was neglectful and wrong. It was around that time that I learned that many of the Reptiles & Amphibians for sale in mainstream pet shops were wild-caught, which was even more heartbreaking. I came to understand that the hobby I was becoming so passionate about had a lot of serious ethical issues to contend with.
It was around this time that I attended my first Reptile industry expo in New York. The vast majority of small business owners, breeders, and enthusiasts who were vending at the show proved to be a more passionate & educational resource than any place I had visited prior. In most cases, the health and vibrancy of the animals was a notable improvement over any I'd seen at any big-name pet shop. Vendors were providing enthusiasts like me comparatively excellent and responsible advice, and were quick to point folks towards reliable online resources which were still relatively new back then. I was fortunate enough to make friends with some hobby veterans, and learning from their shared experiences drastically changed my perspective. On the way home from the first expos I was attending I remember thinking, "Why don't more full-scale businesses offer those kinds of resources and support?".
In late 2007, I discovered a new aspect of the hobby which grabbed my attention more than anything prior. I designed and built my first live vivarium. (Now popularized "bioactive terrarium") There wasn't much info on the subject available in stores or online back then, so I joined some hobbyist forums, got involved with the community, and experimented by building lots of terrariums. Back then, Dart Frog hobbyists were the only group of herpetoculturalists who had long-term experience with this style of enclosure, and I spent a lot of time learning from experts in that field. Considering how incredible these living environments were, I was shocked to find that there were so few (maybe two?!) well-known businesses fully catering to their design & creation at the time.
2008-2010: A Tiny Startup
A goal for many tropical terrarium builders is a lush environment featuring beautiful live moss. Back then, all of the animal safe moss available online was either dried, dyed, or artificial. Through my old job at a wholesale flora distributor, I started sourcing & testing different types of live moss in vivariums. Once I found a species which could thrive long-term in a live vivarium environment, I began researching care and propagation techniques. Eventually, the first samples of what would eventually become "NEHERP moss" were offered on forums for hobbyists to try. I was surprised by the level of positivity and demand the product generated. I unwittingly stumbled my way into offering the first pre-processed, never dried, never dyed, live moss specifically marketed for live terrarium environments. After propagating a handful of other species of plants indoors and a little bit of DIY market research, I decided to start this business officially. During this time, NEHERP was an incredibly tiny basement business with a comically small grow room and stock area packed in a small space behind my apartment's kitchen.
As the concept of the company took shape, I relied on the experiences I had as an enthusiast to influence what I wanted to make happen. First and foremost, NEHERP would be a strictly "no wild caught" business. It was critical to offer respectable husbandry advice, and to follow the same high standards for any animal in our care. I wanted to create a customer service model similar to what one would expect at a professional expo, where our staff could speak from experience when offering advice. One last personal goal I set for myself was to beat the negative stigma some people hold toward this often misunderstood hobby. In summary, my focus would be to support everything related to the creation of bioactive terrarium environments as ethically as possible.
When our website first launched in late 2008, it offered a handful of supplies and plants related to dart frogs and live vivariums. One of the hard supplies offered early on was NEHERP Vivarium Substrate, which may have been the first store brand of substrate designed specifically for bioactive terrariums. While the substrate, moss, and other plants were great, the website was terrible (screenshot for awfulness reference), and the selection was very sparse compared to these days. Friends and fans of the fledgling business helped spread the word on forums, and it grew enough to begin offering a few brand names of herp supplies, and a greatly increased plant selection. By 2010, I began renting our first small warehouse space.
2010-2011 - The Retail Store
Towards the end of 2010, I tried a new concept by opening a retail store in New Britain CT. The little shop offered all of our website's increasing lineup of plants & supplies, plus an assortment of captive bred, and often locally-bred Reptiles & Amphibians. I met so many wonderful people at the retail store, many of whom made impactful & beneficial changes to the direction of both my business & my life.
The website was still extremely basic, but one notable addition was the completion of the Vivarium Construction 101 article. It was published in an effort to help provide a reliable guide for creating good performing live vivariums, by providing the most complete vivarium building guide I could think to write at the time. That article turned out to be one of NEHERP's primary turning points early on. For over a decade, the NEHERP Vivarium Construction article has remained the #1 result on Google for nearly all relevant search terms. That website traffic brought a bunch of new valued customers to the website for information, and I was so thankful to earn their business & their trust.
In late 2011, a plant enthusiast named Jessica walked into the New Britain retail shop and changed both my life and the direction of New England Herpetoculture forever. (I'll skip the lovey-dovey stuff, but Jess and I are soulmates! ♥) After we met, she and I quickly began working together full-time at the retail shop. Over the following year or so, Jess was instrumental in helping to further develop our best-selling Vivarium Substrates, Medias, Horticultural division, and more. From that point on, NEHERP had two passionate people running the show.
With more vivarium articles becoming published and popularized online, and positive reviews rolling-in from customers who tried our products, the NEHERP website began to drastically overshadow the retail store. We made the tough decision to transition the company back to being an online-only shop. With a larger warehouse space and customer suggestions in mind, our business expanded to offer one of the widest selections of vivarium related supplies online.
2012-2013: The Warehouse Merge, Articles, and Mike W.
With many new products launched, and another slightly less awful website update launched (screenshot), things continued to grow at a quick pace. This was when our stylized "
" logo debuted, which has been our primary logo ever since. The new site featured new informational articles, as well as our first plant kits, substrate kits, background kits, and lighting kits for most common terrarium sizes. Busy busy!
In 2013, we hired our first full time employee (and former customer) Mike W, who has been with the company ever since. It should go without saying that I genuinely care for all of the members of the team, but Mike W. needs his own paragraph in this story. He's a core part of what makes our company different, and I'm sincerely grateful to know him. Mike started as a packer, moved to Logistics Supervisor as the team grew, and has since become NEHERP's lead vivarium designer & showroom rep. Over the years, Mike W's herp hobby has evolved considerably, and the experience he brought to the table over the years has been invaluable.
2014-2015: More Products, Growing Pains, and a Wedding!
Our first fully hand-coded website launched in 2014, and was the biggest improvement yet. (Screenshot) Client reception was pretty positive, and the team was relieved to finally have a halfway decent website!
This period was also one of product R&D, which led to multiple new product releases. Things like Modular Cork Planters, Gecko Background Kits, Glass Inserts, Custom Background Texture Mix, Vertical Conversion Kits(discontinued), and tons of new wood decor all launched within roughly the same year. In retrospect, the most critical product developments were our NEHERP Moss Slurry and V2 Substrate Blend, which have both become some of our best selling items to date.
Despite the rapid-fire product releases & aggressive growth, this ended up being an especially rough time for the company. A family business is a family first, and 2015-2016 was an extremely difficult period for us. With some close family members passing away, family health crises looming, multiple thefts, and drastic shipper price increases happening in the background, the usually enjoyable "daily grind" became far more challenging. We're thankful for making it through the difficult times, but the 2014-2015 period remains one of our shop's biggest challenges to this day. As the business's rough patch came to a close, Jess and I were finally married in July of 2015.
2016-2019: New Website, Location, and Baby!
The 6'th version of our website launched in 2016, which helped solidify our little company's spot as the #1-2 search engine result for nearly every topic relating to vivariums & bioactive terrariums. There are lots of new features to mention, but the most pivotal is probably the Vivarium Builder tool, and it's supporting Vivarium Kits. We began offering over 170 different vivarium related kits for all 30 of the most common enclosure sizes, making ours the most comprehensive vivarium support website online. By February 2016, each of the vivarium-related articles had been rewritten to include more up-to-date information, since staying current with evolving husbandry practices was (and still is) a top priority.
My favorite part of this whole story took place in April of 2016, when Jessica & I welcomed our son Michael Gus into the world. He's terribly cute, and spends lots of time at NEHERP. It's incredible to think about, but without clients like you supporting this company, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet Jess when she walked into the retail store back in 2011. Needless to say, I'm extremely grateful for every one of our awesome customers who've helped to make it all possible.
2020-Current
Like most small businesses, the pandemic absolutely blindsided us. To comply with our specific state's "essential business only" mandate, our lineup was paired-down to the "essential" basics for much of 2020. To our surprise, the hobby's popularity exploded during the pandemic and demand increased sharply. While the first few months of 2020 looked especially rough, we were stronger than ever before by the end of the year and had grown into having our strongest staff group ever.
By late 2021 we had finally moved to the new & improved location in Plainville CT, with plans to open a small walk-in showroom in July/August 2022. With an overwhelming increase in space for plants, supplies, and product R&D, the future looks especially exciting. There are many irons in the fire for the future, and we can't wait to see how things work out.
From the bottom of my heart, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our clients for choosing NEHERP over the years. Thank you for allowing me to start this company, and thank you for supporting what we do.
Thank you for your trust, business, and continued support!
What Makes Us Different:
Non-corporate family owned business
Our team is full of experienced enthusiasts and pros Over 50 (combined) years of exotic flora experience Over 60 (combined) years of exotic animal experience We're ex-breeders of 45+ species of Reptiles & Amphibians The widest vivarium supply inventory in the USA Vivarium Kits: The best supported and most complete kits anywhere Vivarium Supplies: We're Your 1-Stop Vivarium Shop™ for a reason Live Plants: Reptile safe, amphibian safe, and always healthy Fruit Fly Cultures: Clean, productive, reliable, and carefully shipped Vivarium Substrates: Often imitated, never duplicated, industry best Pro Grade: Our products are used by Zoos, Museums, and Nature Centers Most NEHERP Brand supplies are manufactured in the USA One of the best reputations in the hobby Please check out our reviews. We promise you'll be satisfied One-on-one customer service provided by enthusiasts who care Fueled by client referrals. Under 0.001% of our revenue goes to ads (2015-2022) Professional vivarium support for both pros and newbies We support everyone from museums, zoos, and universities to new hobbyists Anonymous consultations available for commercial vivarium builders on request Epic live arrival guarantee for perishable orders Our record: 100% healthy arrival for all animal shipments for 6+ years We schedule all plant and microfauna orders to avoid weekend transit delays Ground shipments are guaranteed during fair weather (See Guarantee) We care about the wellbeing of the animals we serve Every animal we've ever sold was captive bred by us or another US-breeder We were the first "captive bred only" reptile store in New England Our retail store scored 100% (never 99.99%) grades at every inspection by the Dept. of Ag. Store policies were built to support rescues and responsible hobbyist breeders Our husbandry recommendations put animals and accuracy first Quick ground shipping to New England and Northeast All of CT, MA, RI, VT, NH, NJ, and NYC have a 1-day transit time Most of PA, ME, NY State, and DE have a 1-day transit time Check our Transit Map for more specific info We're environmentally responsible Team Effort:• Staff members are trained to prevent cross-contamination
• Vivarium drainage water is sterilized before disposal
• "Animal Contact" items are sterilized and/or double bagged before disposal
Packaging:• Our shipping boxes are made from recycled cardboard
• Up to 60% of our outgoing shipping boxes are recycled
• 100% of our new boxes are made from recycled cardboard
• We recycle all incoming packing materials from suppliers
• We use clean recycled paper for void fill in boxes
• Our Heat and Ice Packs are biodegradable and non-toxic
Facility:• Energy audits in 2013, 2017, and 2021 have minimized energy consumption at our shop
• Over 8,000W worth of inefficient lighting has been replaced with LEDs and T5HOs
• Over 13,500W worth of electric heat has been replaced w/modern solutions since 2017
Indoor Greenhouses• Our grow operation is free of harsh chemical pesticides and fertilizers
• Most plants are watered using carbon-filtered water, not more wasteful R/O
• The potting soil blends we use are organic and natural
• Our plant nutrients are OMRI certified organic products
• Pest control is managed using bug zappers and other chemical-free means