Spider mites
Fine webbing between branches plus dull, speckled, fading needles is the signature of spider mites.
Diagnosis
Spider mites
What's happening
Spider mites are tiny sap-sucking pests that thrive in the warm, dry indoor air Norfolk pines often sit in, and these plants are a favorite target. The mites pierce the needles to feed, leaving fine pale stippling and a dusty look, and in a bad infestation they spin delicate webbing across the branch tips. Left unchecked they spread fast and brown out whole sections.
How to fix it
Isolate the plant from your other houseplants right away. Rinse it thoroughly in the shower or with a strong spray to knock down the population, then treat every surface — tops and undersides of the needles and the branch joints — with insecticidal soap, repeating every 5–7 days for three rounds to catch newly hatched mites. Raising the humidity around the plant afterward makes it far less hospitable to mites returning.
What fixes it
- Insecticidal soap — Insecticidal soap smothers spider mites on contact; repeat every 5–7 days to break the hatch cycle.
If that doesn't fix it
This is general guidance based on common symptoms; individual plants vary.
Read the full Norfolk Island Pine care guide →
Reviewed June 2026 · how we check this