*pic* What in the world are these little white balls?

[SallyD]

Hey people, new here! Well I have a handful of cacti and one of them I noticed today has a bunch of tiny little white balls at the base of the cacti. Attached to this post is a pic I took with my digital camera, I zoomed in and took this picture, the area you are looking at is about the size of a nickel or quarter. Do you see all the little white balls? What in the world is that? Some sort of fungus or something?

I would appreciate any help on this! Thank you for your time.

Below are some pics with the cacti in question, sorry if some of them are crappy. It's the tall one with the big 1 inch spikes. Click the thumbs to view larger versions:





Above, I have drawn a blue circle around the white balls.

[DieTer-Xz]

It looks like mealybug to me. Search the forum for ways to get rid of them. I use a pesticide.

[daiv]

I think you may have two different things there. If you have white fuzzy critters on the spines or stem -those would be the mealy bugs.

The little balls I've seen before. I think it is either a fungus or eggs from gnats. I think these get trasfered around in potting soil. If you use organic material in your substrate, then you might want to sterilize it first.

[taliesin]

if they are perfectly round and you find them in the soil as well as on top...there may be some clear ones too, then these are snail eggs. usually with a jelly type texture.