I usually just get my bottle of 70% alcohol and swab the little buggers off. That would most likely be a PITA for a hoya compacta, so you can do 1:3 alcohol to water and spray. Give it a shower and isolate the plant.

im gonna keep it out in my sunroom until i know they are gone... if im spraying it like that, how often should i spray and when do you think it would be safe to bring it inside? i repoted it and got rid of as much of the old soil as possible when i did it, not sure if that will help or not, not sure if they live in the soil too but i figured it was a good idea to repot...

ive never seen them before, so heres the best pic i can get, im guessing they are mealybugs...

{{gwi:75071}}

Source: Uploaded by user via Amber on Pinterest

Looks like aphids to me.

are aphids white? because these were whitish/yellow

I was thinking of the yellow aphids with black legs. Sorry for any confusion, on my monitor the bugs look yellow in the photo. Good luck.

i didnt see any legs at all... they were just these white things that i wasnt even sure if they were a bug or not until i poked one with the tip of a pair of scissors, then it moved a very tiny bit, i pushed it i tiny bit and it moved back to where it was... im guessing that these are in fact mealys...

Those do not look like mealies to me...you know when mealies are adults. They're large (for a plant pest), white, look like cotton balls, and congregate under leaves and in the axils.

I believe aphids come in several different colors, just like the spider mite.

Anyway, I usually spray once a week. I then swab in between that time. They come off really easily with a alcohol soaked q-tip.

Amber,

Rubbing alcohol helps but it takes a lot of picking, and is hard to see them all on the rope. For most plants I take small painters brush (it holds alcohol better than q-tip) and just touch bugs, I don't care if I pick them or leave on the plant. It kills on the spot. When I'm sick of picking and spraying (every 3 days for couple of weeks) I get Bayer Advanced Tree and shrub (BATS) from home depot. 2 tablespoons in 1 gal of water, place plant on the tray or disposable plastic plate, water, let it run from draining hole and leave pot for 30 min so it absorbs BATS. Keep away from kids and pets until it stops dripping. Do not water 10 days. (Do not use BATS on any edibles.) You may need to do it twice.
Good luck!

Aggie

thanks everyone for your help... im guessing then that its either aphids or maybe baby mealies? im not sure what babies would look like... there was no webbing or white stuff anywheres else though, so i guess now im leaning more towards aphids...

well im really confused now because i looked all over online and they really didnt look like aphids either... maybe im crazy and they were nothing?

I know this sounds weird, but prod them. Do they move?

yes! they did move... i just got a different hoya and this is what was on it...

{{gwi:951834}}

Source: Uploaded by user via Amber on Pinterest

anyone know what this is??? its different from what i found on the other ones, but not that much more different...

That looks like a speck of Osmocote to me (a type of time- release fertilizer), not bugs. Sorry don't know what to tell you.

ive done some looking around after someone on another post said something about scale, and it looks like it might have something to do with scale...

Oh, you're posting the same pix & comments on 2 different threads (we try not to do that), that's why I'm getting confused.

PIRATE GIRL
Whats wrong with posting to find an answer. I have seen no rules on posting. To me I find this rude, and who is we do you have someone in your pocket. I thought this was a helpful web, not judgemental. Sounds like you didn't knkow what is was, right. I have gardened for 40 years and I find your comment offensive even to me.

I've been a moderator before, and posting one thing on two separate threads can be irritating. However, that could have been resolved in a private message.

Anyway, I would be concerned about that dot. (I'm super careful when it comes to my plants.) Swab it off with a q-tip and make sure to wash the plant down. Isolate and be vigilant.

I know Toni suggests Fish Emulsion for scale. If you do find other signs of scale, it might be worth the purchase.

Sorry, I just got confused & wondered why; if I had a computer glitch or GW (which does happen from time to time).

Excuse me John, but don't know what either of these comments mean

"and who is we do you have someone in your pocket"

"sounds like you didn't knkow what is was, right"

am NOT looking for a problem or trying to judge anything, I'm so sorry, yikes!

Somewhere here, there is a request about not double posting, though I don't recall where.

A product call consend works great on all pests including mealys.