Try Neem.

Is it possible that the white bigs are aphids? My lettuce outside tends to get pink or white aphids late in the season (spring). Since i've not tried them indoors and i don't buy plants, that's my guess. I'd probably try safer insecticidal soap or a combo of 1/2 rubbing alcohol, 1/2 water and a drop of dishsoap and tobasco in a spray bottle before i went to the trouble of finding neem (unless you already have it).

That combo works well on aphids, but not so much on mealy bugs if that's your white stuff . It will knock them down for a while, but the only thing i've found that's non toxic that actually kills mealies (or scale, which mealies are related to)for good is dormant or light oil sprays. Dormant for stuff without leaves, light for stuff that's growing. Usually the same stuff can be used for both- it's just the dilution rate.

The winter crops are really quite cold tolerant, and if they do have some damage, will generally outgrow it before long. I don't protect my stuff til it's going into the teens unless it's a sudden drop that they wouldn't be acclimated to. Of course, the more you protect, the more usable crop you'll get from them when it's very cold. My goal isn't that- it's just for them to get cranking as soon as it's stable-ish in feb-march. Not that i don't enjoy winter crops, i'm just too cold natured and lazy in winter to be fussing in the garden.

Hmm, the white bugs could be aphids. I'll take a look and work out the combo. And I might try that on the flea beetles, in case it'll help; I've put out a jar with vinegar in case they act at all like fruit flies, but ugggh those things are ugly.

I'm hoping for some edible winter crop -- not enough to truly feed myself, but enough to mix into recipes every now and then. Depending on how things go, I may or may not winter sow...

If you look at some with a hand lens you should be able to ID them. If you still can't, take a pic and blow it up as much as you can, then post the sucker.

Tammy, I found an aphid. But most of the bugs are eensy weensy teensy tiny yellow polka...

No, no, they're really white. Incredibly small, seem to have legs and can jump.

Pictures pending...

LOL! Can't think of what's white and can jump. Mealies can't jump- they crawl slowly, white flies fly and of course aphids walk. Those are the only ones i can think of that are white, but hopefully someone else can chime in. I'll be interested to see the pix!

Oh, wait- i do get some kind of white fuzzy things that jump but so far only on certain plants outside. I don't know what they are. Sort of a triangular shape when see from the side like a leaf hopper but more squished up, pointy. I've not seen them on my edibles- mostly in my yard they like certain hostas, my citron-something daylily, and the buttered popcorn ranunclus. When i try to squish them they scoot to the other side of the stem and then will hop away- and they can go a good ways. They leave a little white ring of fuzz where they were. About 1/8" long/high or so. Does that sound like yours?

I usually don't bother spraying anything. I either eat around the insect damage or I just toss the whole thing and start over. In my mind it seems like by the time I add up all the effort it takes to identify the pest and work up a control chemical I could have spent less on store bought produce. What I do when I have a bad infestation of anything on indoor plants is I drag them outside on warm winter days. Out there in nature are all sorts of predators that will take care of the problem for me - often in one afternoon. After a couple of afternoons outside I can bring the potted plants back indoors until the next wave of problem pests show up.

Well, I've completely failed to upload pictures. I *know* I took them, but haven't shrunk them to upload yet. (maybe I'll remember today and upload them to flickr :) Am trying to finish a research paper before Christmas and my boss wants me to have the "deer in the headlights" look about finishing the phd in the spring, so I keep forgetting about uploading. Woohoo.

Took the flea beetle plants outside for some afternoons, and this did nothing to the presumed flea beetles. Neither did the diatomaceous earth. The things also weren't eating holes in anything, just sitting there looking ugly. So anyway, I've decided now that they're not flea beetles. And I left the affected plants out in the cold because they and the beetles are going to my compost pile. Pulled up 2 of my 3 lettuce plants because they were looking a pretty unhealthy (too much water? hit by cold?) but the third still looks healthy.

Thanks for the suggestions. :) I'll still try to post so I know what those doggone bugs are...

if they didn't move at all it makes me think Scale insect. There are millions of different types and some rarely move around.