Most houseplant pests are invisible until the damage is obvious. Learning to read the damage is faster than hunting for the insect.
Identify by the damage
| Symptom | Likely culprit |
|---|---|
| Fine webbing, stippled pale speckles | Spider mites |
| Silvery streaks, deformed new growth | Thrips |
| White cottony fluff in leaf joints | Mealybugs |
| Small flies around the soil surface | Fungus gnats |
| Hard brown bumps that scrape off | Scale |
The treatment that works for most of them
Isolate the plant immediately, because pests spread across a collection in days. Then physically remove what you can: a firm shower, or rubbing alcohol on a cotton bud for mealybugs and scale. Follow with insecticidal soap or neem every 5–7 days for at least three cycles, because nearly every treatment kills adults but not eggs.
Skipping the repeat treatments is the single most common reason an infestation comes back two weeks later.