Here's another angle.

Yes! It IS a problem...called mealy bugs! Check all plants in the vicinity-as they may all have them. If you have rubbing alcohol, use a 50/50 mixture of it & water in a spray bottle. You can first dip Q-tip swabs (or use toothpicks-to scrape off) & then spray. They like to hide in the cracks of the leaves. If you take one of those cottony things & squish it, you'll see brown stuff (dead bug). You want to remove all the white, cottony, sticky stuff. After you've sprayed ~check every day~ reapply if necessary. Quarantine from other plants ~if the others don't seem infected by them.

On the other hand, if you don't have rubbing alcohol & can't get any, use the swabs (or whatever) & then spray with a dish soap mixture (w/water).

Thanks so much for your help! Googling just wasn't cutting it. So, if the other plants don't have the sticky stuff, then they aren't infected? It really is only on the agave. Although, one leaf on my jade tree has a little hole under it. But, again, no sticky stuff.

You're welcome! =)

If you don't see any white or sticky stuff on the others (& have checked in between leaf areas, then It could be just the one plant affected.

In my luckily limited experience with them, mealies go for the newest, softest leaves. When the newest leaves die or are misshapen, that's another sign to look for mealy bugs.

So check all the growth points. These things will attack the new growth when it's so small you don't even notice a leaf is missing.

Luckily I had the spray already available, after years of using it on Pine Sawfly Larvae. (They're much larger than mealies, and the result of spraying them is instantaneous and visible.)