Thank you for your replies. Well.. after digging out the 'big mamma', it was obvious it couldn't be saved.. the roots were awful looking & the whole thing smelled BAD. There were 2 babies off to the side and one of them was still colored brightly and had decent roots, so I pulled it out and am waiting for it to dry completely before putting it into new dirt.

Jean, yes, inspect ALL your plants.. It's the crawlers, (babies) that are hard to find.. That's the reason it's important to spray all parts of your Agave/s. Leaves/stems, etc. I think Baby Wipes contain Rubbing Alcohol, right? It's been a long time, lol. If it does, alcohol will help somewhat, but Jean, to rid those suckers, literal suckers, you better get to work. Clean and inspect daily until you get hold of Bayer or whatever you choose to use. They multiply fast. Are these guys hard-shelled? Yuck, plant bugs are gross looking, especially when magnified. I read an article that explained how eggs are in waiting, during winter months, then when climate is 'just right' they come out of hiding. Hatch. As much as I dislike Scale, IMO, they're easier to rid than Mealy.. I purchased an Olive tree from an online nursery. I ordered from this place several times, and never ever found insects, but there's always that first time, you know? The olive tree arrived. I set it beside a group of citrus and other tropicals. (BTW, it was winter, days cloudy, and my eyes aren't what they used to be.) I can't recall how many days later, while misting, I spotted a brown lump on a leaf..then another and another. Jean, I wanted to cry..there were hundreds of scales..truly that many and more. Then, I looked at citrus neighboring the olive..all branches growing nearest the Olive had loaded..which is one advantage..scale move slower than say, mites. What do you do with a hundred scale? Hand-pick each? What? Earlier in that summer I spoke with a woman in Fl who owns a citrus nursery. She's the person who told me they use Fish Emulsion as a scale preventative and insecticide. I phoned her, explained the situation, asked the portion of FE to water. She gave me the recepie, and it worked! Talk about grateful. One thing that bothered and still troubles me to this day. The olive was delivered in winter. It was very cold outside. Yet, the cold didn't bother or kill the scale. This was pre-heat-pack days..the cold didn't bother the tree either, so I don't have an answer. The olive is alive and well to this day. So are the citrus. So, IMO, scale aren't terribly destructive IF something is done, but if left to live, bye-bye plant.Good luck, Jean, Toni

Bonnie just to let you know that it is usually better to start a new thread especially if the older one has many posts and probably plenty of answers to original poster - and may not be read as often. There is a reason why plants are sold on clearance, and for such low price: most often it is a poor condition of the plant. Stores don't really know (or may have no time) how to care about different plants and succulents suffer usually more since they do not like to sit in wet soil. All plants in the stores get watered at the same time. Buying so many plants in poor condition makes it so much harder to save them - in very short time, you already lost 2. On top of that, the moon cacti are actually 2 plants: one on the bottom is a rootstock (more vigorous plant) and one on top - the colored one - is grafted on it. Colored plant can't survive on it's own since it lacks chlorophyl. It will grow grafted, but quite often doesn't grow more than few years (there are exceptions, but not that many). The soil they are in is likely not so much week, but water-retaining. It is probably peat that either stays too wet or too dry - very difficult to keep right moisture. Succulents need good drainage. You need to read about better mix to use for them. This thread has posts that mention better mix (even a photo of it), and you can search the forum for many, many more. Getting proper mix and containers ready ahead of time would help, so all the plants could be repotted as soon as possible. I am not trying to 'beat you up', just stating few facts. It is difficult to resist a bargain, but dealing with so many plants in poor condition isn't easy.

You need to get them growing properly first before thinking of what you do with them at a later stage. If you are new to this, best keep them individually potted as they are different types, you can always group pots in a container and cover rims with stones for a group look! Whether they will pull round remains to be seen as they look pretty damaged at the moment. You won't be able to buy a soil off the shelf, sadly no one sems to sell anything that resembles a good fast draining mix, that's why we need the separate ingredients to mix together. Gill