Looks like aphids. Easy to control with neem. Is your tree outside? I forgot your location.

Or you can just wash them off; and then look for the ants that brought them. If you have ants, you will have aphids; control the ants and you will not.

Yep,,.aphids.

I had some aphids a short while ago. I just killed them with my fingers as there weren't many and caught them early. Keep an eye out for more.

Adult aphids have wings and can fly from plant to plant to lay their eggs. I just dealt with an minor aphid build up. The top bud of my tree looks just like yours. It will terminate as the other leave mature. In time when the tree is ready it will flush again.

Steve

My trees are inside and we do not have ants. It’s way to cold, but they usually don’t get in the house anyway. I also have a large lady big population, so I’m surprised to hear l have aphids. Do aphids harm plants? I know some critters attach new leaf growth.

aphids suck on the leaves and cause them to be crinkled and less productive.

While I understand that it is possible for aphids to exist apart from ants; in my 50 years of experience on 5 continents I have NEVER seen aphids on citrus without ants. Sometimes you have to look more closely to find ants; and in this case of so few aphids, there may be only a very few ants.

That explains why my new growth was vibrant and thriving yesterday, but curled and sad today. Should I️ spray everything with neem?

Just hose down the plant thoroughly. IMO, neem is overkill for aphids - they will just wash away with water or can be easily wiped off/squished with fingers. You can't be a successful gardener and be overly squeamish :-))

Neem will kill your ladybugs. BTW, if, as you say, you have a population of ladybugs, they will control (but not eliminate) your aphids.

I also found similar on some of the new growth on my thornless key lime just this morning. I initially thought "spider mites" but then the fact that I could actually see "individuals", made me speculate aphids. They were not on the underside of the leaves that I could find but were hanging out in the crotch of a couple brand new shoots with sprouting leaves.

I have a 32 oz spray bottle with just water and blasted away at the area and then gave the rest of the trees some misting.

The ladybug population usually dwindles as winter progresses. They’ve mostly been hanging out on my cilantro and parsley. I’ll have to keep a closer eye out for aphids. I mist the plants every morning, but I’ve kind of been coasting. I haven’t been diligent about searching for critters, since things have been going so well.

I've used a spray bottle with water and a tiny bit of dish soap to kill aphids. Diluted enough to form very few suds but still feel a bit soapy on the fingers. It worked against the aphids. At least I think it worked..they looked dead to me. Poked them and they became mush

Lady bug populations diminish with the food supply; it is why beneficials do not eliminate the bad bugs... if they totally eliminated them, they would have nothing to eat and the lady bugs would die.

I see an amazing response from ladybugs when aphids pop out in droves on my Japanese plum (loquat) trees. First, I think the aphids are going to wipe me out and the next thing I see are LOTS of ladybug nymphs and they really do great work. Yes, they don't eat all the aphids but they do a good enough job that I don't need to step in with other measures. It's probably a lot different with indoor plants where you don't have as many natural aphid enemies. If you haven't ever seen a larval ladybug, be sure and Google up a photo so you don't accidentally kill them thinking they are bad guys. They look awful compared to the cute adult.

Just so you consider all possibilities....some of the critters in your photos look a bit like whiteflies to me. Can't tell for sure though.

Googled images of whitefly, ladybug nymph, and aphids. I think they were aphids, definitely not white fly. I guess I need to just keep inspecting every plant are take care of them as I see them. No way to systematically wipe them out without killing my ladybugs or dousing my house in nasty insecticides?