Aphids?

[malteseproverb]

I've been seeing these bugs starting a couple of months ago but only on blooms. They appeared in midwinter so I was initially skeptical that aphids would somehow get inside and survive for months only to appear on blooms, but I can't figure out what else they would be. No ants in sight. Now I'm seeing them on ferns and moss growing in my stanhopea. They're very tiny and grey, but now I'm seeing some white ones as well (pictured). I've been washing them off which has worked for some plants and the leaves of my orchids appear untouched. Could they be something other than aphids?

[Roberta]

I have had aphid appear "out of nowhere" on spikes on orchids indoors. I suspect that eggs can survive in medium for a long time until they "decide" that the time is right. They sure have that look. Soapy water knocks them down pretty well.

[Subrosa]

They don't look like the aphids I see here, and I'm only 60 miles away from Philadelphia. They cluster like that, but the ones I see are green and more laterally compressed than what I can make out in your pics. Possibly mites?

[Roberta]

The ones in the second photo, on the orchid spike, sure look like aphids ('way too big for mites)... where I live, they come in different colors. Green and black especially. When I get an infestation, first I see the little white, threadlike juveniles., then they "blossom".

[malteseproverb]

I have a feeling these came from organic vegetables. We had been volunteering at an organic vegetable farm and bringing in loads of produce all summer; we kept finding bugs throughout the house. We were also bringing the produce to the yard, washing and drying it there, and the bugs were spreading to the yard plants. Since aphids found those plants preferable, I didn't see them with my orchids, but they could have moved inside with them or other houseplants I kept outside all summer. There were all varieties of aphids, all sizes and colors.