After a DISASTROUS infestation of book lice, my last vivarium was ruined - everything that was made of wood (pretty much all the decorations + the cork bark background I had bought) had to be removed permanently. I have two crested geckos, soon to be four, and I want their enclosure to be beautiful again - but without the book lice problem. I am living in a place that has no humidity issues, so there are no lice in the house at all anymore, which is good.

Despite the fact that the geckos are jungle type critters, I want to shoot for a rock background this time - so that if the lice do come back, at least the background won't be hard to decontaminate. I have no idea how to make such a thing, and I am leery of the Exo-Terra background because it's made of Styrofoam, which is a starchy delicious buffet to a book louse, haha. I was thinking of trying to get my hands on a dense wood board, 18x24, or maybe even a plastic section to really prevent any tiny irritating bugs from burrowing in it, and then using plaster to craft my own stonescape. I have some awesome ideas already, but have NO idea where to start, what my options are, or even if plaster is a safe thing to use.

Has anybody made their own background before?