Question
QUESTION: I have the same problem with the white spots.  I could definitely interpret them as mineral deposits, and I did for a while.  Then I placed the plant on a black, well-finished, shiny, end table.  Now I can see that the plant daily drops several dozen white, grub-like organisms; the organisms are alive and move about very slowly (perhaps quickly for their small size).  They're about a millimeter long and perhaps a 1/5 - 1/10 of a millimeter wide.  I don't have a microscope handy, and have not been able to examine them any closer.  

Any ideas?

ANSWER: Scott,

If the white spots look lie little bits of cotton balls you have mealy bugs which are a sucking insect. The white cottony substance is actually egg sacs and when the eggs hatch the juvenile version of the mealy bug flies and can quickly spread to other plants.

To eradicate them I recommend spraying the entire plant with rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle. Make sure you spray the fronts and backs of all leaves and the surface of the soil twice a week for a month then once a week for 2 more months. Because the eggs can stay in the soil and  hatch out for several weeks it takes persistence to eradicate these insects.
Good luck at getting rid of them.

Darlene

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Darlene.  Sorry about the lack of clarity in my question, I though I was responding to another individual's posting, hence the conversational tone.  

The white spots don't look like cotton balls. As I say, they look somewhat like white mineral deposits; if they're little cotton balls, then they're really really little cotton balls, little specks really.  There also aren't any flying insects, rather they're very small (1 mm x 1/7 mm) grub-like organisms.  

Any other ideas?


Answer
Scott,

By a bit of a cotton ball I'm talking about a little 1/8th or even 1/16th of an inch little bit of white cotton and the flying juvenile versions of mealy bugs  are so tine they cannot be seen. If your insects are not mealy bugs they are aphids or scale. Those are the only 3 insects that attack crassula and the rubbing alcohol is still the best way to eradicate them. Any commercial insecticide is likely to kill your plant but rubbing alcohol will not. It is the only thing you can use on a jade safely that will not damage the plant. Jades are very sensitive to chemicals. Many chemicals cause cell collapse and ill the plant, alcohol kills insects on contact and does not damage the plant. Good luck.

Darlene