plant sick with white fuzzy things

Hello,

Recently, I noticed small white fuzzy spots 'growing' on the stem and leaves of my succulent. (I think my plant is an Aeonium, but I'm not sure.) After searching on the Internet, I thought it might be mealy bugs, but I don't see any insects at all. Could it be some kind of fugus or eggs!?!?

The white fuzzy things are very filamentous when disturbed.

I have attached 2 pictures. One shows where they are (I've circled some of the fuzzy things), and the other is a close up.

What should I use to treat it? Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you!

 

Look up "mealybugs."

 

Thanks Ron B.

I see that many people on the forum suggest cotton swabbing with rubbing alcohol, so I did that. I noticed it's a bit hard to get to them and some of the attacked leaves fell off.

Are the bugs inside the white fuzzy puffs? Are they small? I can't seem to see the actual mealy bug.

 

Each puff is a mealybug.

 

Ohhh!

Looking at my other succulents, I've noticed that many of them have been infected also, but less severely.

For others that may have the same problem, I found the following webpage to most clearly describe how to identify mealy bugs and how to treat this problem:
http://www.succulents.co.za/succulent-plant-pests/mealy-bug.php

Since I have so many plants, I think I'll need to seek chemical treatment. For those interested, the site I mentioned lists the following chemicals, as ones that can be used:
- Tokuthion - 5ml/10 l water
- Chlorpirifos - 100ml/10 l
- Confidor - 10ml/10 l
- Malathion - 25ml/10 l

 

The white cotton puff looking bug is the adult insect. If you give it time to mature, then spread the puff open, you should see hundreds of small, red crawlers. Those "crawlers" are how this insect spreads so rapidly.


A good treatment of Chlorpyrifos will kill them very effectively.

 

Thanks for the added description and the tip!