Any photos of these "white-insects"?
Based on your description I think you are likely referring to mealybugs, a worldwide enemy of gardeners!   

Most of the time we avoid using chemical insecticides if possible. One of the common methods that we can use is to mix some detergent with water and put the mixture into a spray bottle. You can try spraying the mixture onto the bugs themselves, or try to stream-spray them off the leaves 

Mealybugs are always a headache to deal with, and have to be dealt with sooner than later because they reproduce quite quickly.