Yes, they appear to be aphids. I've found the trick is to wait. The ladybug larva always seem to wait till there are MANY aphids . Some sort of great survival technique. Sometimes I get impatient and hit the aphids with a stream of water from the hose, other times I don't. Both ways results in total elimination of the aphids. Now that his knows the lady bugs will come, hopefully he will cut back on various killing sprays and not harm them and their other beneficial bug friends. That seems to be the key to the whole thing in my experience.

That is a mealy bug....old enemy of all succulents. Can clean them off with alcohol soaked Q-tip. You have to make sure they are not in the roots as well. Check all your other plants nearby as well.

Mealy. Dip a Q-tip in rubbing alcohol and remove it. The critter will turn orange/red. You can also remove with a toothpick or whatever. Treat the plant with a spray of 50/50 rubbing alcohol/water. Keep it out of the sun when you do this. A few days later you may need to treat again. If you catch them early - like just one or two - and treat you can control them rather well. Ants like to move them from plant to plant, so check out your others for them and treat accordingly. For a big infestation you may need a systemic, like diluted Bayer. Tis the season, Britni! I am doing my annual battle with mealies and aphids. I really should start using a systemic drench preventatively! On the up side, I found some lady bugs on the plants on my lanai today. The bad news is I must have something for them to eat!

After watering yesterday I noticed some small white bugs in the soil of my dragon fruit plants. At first I thought they were spring tails since I had them before but these didn't jump. At any given time I could see at least 10-15 crawling on the surface, after spraying with h2o2/water/dish soap I'm lucky if I see 1. After doing some intense googling, I think they might be soil mites but who knows. I don't particularly care what they are as long as they are harming the plants. The majority of my plants are in an inorganic mix so I don't normally see a ton of bugs. I also have some strawberry seedlings in a similar mix as the dragon fruit and I've noticed same bugs but all of the strawberries seem to be thriving (minus 2 that were got burned, I don't think this is related).