Sounds like mealie bugs. If you have only noticed a few then you can just carefully look over your plants and treat them with some pretty common household items. Rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip works very well and after you are done looking over the plants you can spray them down with water with a squirt of dish soap, make sure you don't use detergent though because it's too harsh. If you get many affected plants you need to be really vigilant and use Neem or a product like Safer's soap or pyrethrum based insecticides. Often times it is more effective to use more than one method at a time. Systemic insecticides work well but you need to take personal, pet and environmental precautions when using them.

Mike

TD,

Mealies are hideous plant suckers that are impossible to get rid of completely once you have them, especially if you have a big plant collection. But you can keep them in check. I find very few anymore, but I have made it a habit to thoroughly check every plant over carefully every single time I water. It's time consuming, but your best defense. When it comes to the huge ones, I use a systemic periodically, simply because it's impossible to check every nook-and-cranny of every leaf.

I have a spray bottle of about 1/3 rubbing alcohol, 2/3 water with some Dawn dish soap added (just 2 or 3 drops) that I use if I find one - I spray down the whole plant, let it sit for about 1/2 hour, then I go back and spray it with VF-11 (I like to wash off the bug-zap, as I call it...) Just be sure to watch everything in the vicinity closely for a few weeks...

Denise in Omaha

I made up a concoction like yours, Denise, and sprayed everything on the same shelf as the parasitica. I will keep a close eye out for them now that I know what I'm looking for.