wow, thanks folks! i'm looking thru Google now, seems like these bugs are pretty impervious to a lot of common insecticides. i've got cats too, so there's not a lot i can do chemically... there are probably too many to dab individually with alcohol - can i mix some with water and spray it on? how about mixing Ivory soap with water, i heard that works well (obviously a very weak mix, as not to cover the
plants with soap). the fern was completely eaten alive by these things, but it doesn't look like anything else has been that severely infected quite yet. i do have several cacti, and i surely want to protect those, so i will try to start treatment first thing tomorrow.
thanks for all your replies, if you have any other suggestions i'd love to hear em...