What's eating my philodendron 'white princess'?

Philodendron 'White Princess' is most threatened by spider mites, which quickly damage the variegated white sections of the leaves. Thrips also target the pale tissue. Mealybugs colonise stem nodes. The white variegation has fewer chloroplasts and shows damage faster than green tissue — inspect every week.

Pale speckled stippling, especially visible on the white leaf sections; fine webbing on undersides. Shower the plant to dislodge mites, increase humidity, and apply neem oil or insecticidal soap every 5–7 days for a month.

Silver-grey streaks and distorted new growth; tiny dark frass spots on the underside of leaves. Remove heavily infested leaves, apply spinosad or insecticidal soap spray, and use blue sticky traps to monitor populations.

White waxy cottony masses in stem joints and leaf axils; slow decline and sticky residue on lower leaves. Dab with 70% isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab; treat the whole plant with diluted neem oil spray.