Are you sure the plant is ok? It looks like mealy bugs, but hard to tell from the photo.

Please don't use liquid soap on your plant. Dishsoap/
detergent’s effect on plants varies with the mode of exposure. If
the top of the plant is sprayed thoroughly with even mild detergent
solutions such that all surfaces including leaves are covered, the
detergent can easily dissolve the protective coating of cuticular wax
on the leaves of the plant, causing abnormally high rates of water
loss and possible necrosis of all or part of the leaf. Cuticular
waxes prevent leaves from drying out, and help stop pathogens from
attacking the leaf. Strong solutions will even dissolve cell
membranes, causing death of the cells.

If
a detergent solution is used as a soil drench or makes its way into
the soil as a consequence of overspray or run-off, the effect on
roots is immediate. Because one of the main function of roots is to
absorb water and nutrients dissolved in water, they lack the waxy
protective coating that leaves employ. Detergent solution in contact
with root cells can quickly dissolve the lipid membrane
surrounding cells, killing the cells and inhibiting water/ nutrient
uptake. Hair cells growing as appendages off larger roots do the
lion’s share of assimilating water and nutrients, and these very
delicate cells would be the first casualty of any detergent in the
root zone.

There
are widely available insecticidal soaps, designed to be used
topically and made from potassium fatty acids, that are specifically
formulated to be safe for mammals & birds, death on most insects
they contact, and safe for plants. If you need something soapy, it
would be much better if you selected a product intended for use on
plants than one intended for other purposes.

Al

Good grief, that's the worst case of mealybugs that I've ever seen!

I would make a solution of one part rubbing alcohol to three parts water in a plant mister (spray bottle), and mist your plant thoroughly. Then remove the insects and their webby nests with a soft cloth or cotton swab.

Remove ALL that you see. Then repeat the misting every week or so to catch the hatchlings you've missed.

In the future, whenever you observe something that doesn't seem normal, take a good picture and let us ID it for you. Mealybugs can cause serious decline in a plant.....they suck plant sap all day long.

Thanks for all of the replies, SaraM, subtropix, tapla, and rhizo_1. I'll get an insecticidal soap this weekend.

Are mealy bugs related to scale insects at all? I ask because 3-6 months before this plant, I had a different one in the same location that died due to a large scale insect infestation that I couldn't get rid of.

The photo below is the type of insect that the previous plant had.

Unless the plant is important, I'd just chuck it or move it outside. It's not a rare plant and it is much easier to replace than fight them. Mealy bugs spread very fast and yes, they are related to scale.

Mealybug and scale are two different genera (each have their own genus) so the most important relationship they share is that they have rasping/sucking mouth parts that allow them to feed on sap. Mealybug is a bit easier to tame than scale, but neither is a picnic.

Al

Hello. Does anybody know what this white fuzzy stuff is.. is this a meal bug that you everybody's been commenting on? When I used a damp cloth to clean it it turned brown on the cloth and there's Brown and white stuff in the base of the stems.

It l00ks like a bug belonging to the whereisit genus.