What's eating my friendship plant?

Pilea involucrata 'Moon Valley' is a fast-growing houseplant whose textured, heavily crinkled foliage provides hiding spots for mealybugs and spider mites. Fungus gnats are common in the moist conditions this plant prefers. Aphids occasionally attack soft new growth. Inspect the leaf valleys carefully — pests tuck in where spray can miss them.

White cottony deposits lodged deep in leaf crevices and stem nodes; leaves cup and distort Use a cotton swab with 70% isopropyl alcohol to reach into crevices; follow with a neem oil spray; repeat every seven days for a month

Pale stippling across the leaf surface; fine webbing in the grooves of crinkled leaves in dry air Increase ambient humidity; rinse foliage in the shower; apply insecticidal soap to undersides every five days for three treatments

Larvae feed on fine roots in wet soil, causing sudden wilting and poor growth Allow top 2 cm of soil to dry between waterings; set yellow sticky traps; apply beneficial nematodes (Steinernema feltiae) as a soil drench

Clusters of soft insects on succulent new stem tips; leaves curl and exude sticky honeydew Knock off with a targeted water jet; spray with insecticidal soap or diluted neem oil; repeat as needed until no new colonies appear