The following was received via email: I have a christmas cactus that has stickey white stuff on it. When you look close you can see tiny furry gray bugs. They are 2-3 mm long I tried showering them and they just moved to the under side of the leaves. They are now starting to spread to my other plants.
HI There .. it sounds like you have Mealy bugs and one safe way to get rid of them is to dip a Q Tip in rubbing alcohol .. and attack each bug with it .. repeat this till they are all gone .. good luck Marn
Be sure to isolate the plant from others. And deal with the other plants too! One characteristic about rubbing alcohol that I don't like is that it has a drying effect on the leaf tissue. May damage the leaf. Very effective with mealies but it's best to rinse out the leaves (several minutes or more) after putting it on the plant.