Honeysuckle

Hi Tipton - there could be a number of culprits from various insects, snails, slugs to rabbits so there is no real way of telling and reducing it will depend entirely on what is eating the plant.  If you look carefully at the leaves you can look for signs of invertebrates that may be eating the leaves, though slugs only tend to appear at night if you get a wet day you can take a look and see if there have been any encouraged out for a meal, I would avoid using commercial slug repellents as these can be harmful to other wildlife but there are a number of other things to try including spreading broken eggshell around the base of the plant (remove any slugs or snails you see on the plant first though).  If you see rabbits in your garden they could easily be the culprit, and it will require some pretty big digging work to prevent them though as the garden starts to get more greenery they'll have more options of things to nibble on and therefore their impact may be reduced.  If it's a kind of insect, you could just try spraying the plant with the leftover soapy water from washing up as a starter as this can help reduce the impact of plant eating minibeasties.  At least, that's what my mum always did when there was something damaging the plants lol

Hi Tipton

I found this on the web unsure if it will help with your problem or not?

http://www.gardenwiseonline.ca/gw/ask-pros/2008/08/18/honeysuckle-leaves-eaten-bug

Shane

A word of warning Tipton, sprays used to control pests are the main reason that Sparrows are on the red list, it has been established that pest killing sprays have so reduced the food source for feeding their young that clutches die before they can mature, they may also be poisoning them for all I know. They are also strongly suspected as the main cause of the death of bees, which in turn threatens our own food supplies, most edible (to us) plants are pollinated by insects, (all fruits for starters) fewer insects, less food for us, we'll be left with cereals which are wind pollinated - so I would personally never, ever use sprays of any kind in my garden and would strongly urge other gardeners to ditch them too. If your plant is healthy it should recover from insect damage and it may well not be a problem next year.

Another very good reason for not using sprays is that the Soil Association published a paper some years ago that suggested certain pest control sprays are strongly implicated in the upsurge in certain diseases in humans including MS and Motor Neuron Disease to name but two - the main culprit they suspected was a spray used to control carrot root fly and various pests associated with spuds and onions - it was based on the nerve gas used in chemical warfare - I suspect the paper is so old now, that particular nasty has been removed from the market, but it illustrates just how careful you have to be when using chemicals. Chemical manufacturers have no vested interest in protecting birds or warning us of health risks - which is how they got away with DTD for so long and may still be selling it in some countries.

Hello Tipton

If its slugs and snails my gran used to dig a hole and put a container filled with beer in to it ...the slugs would be attracted to the beer and then fall in the pot before they could get to the plant ......thats if she managed to get it in the pot before grandad drank it lol..............don't know what the more experienced think of this method but it worked for her 

regards Kimbo

Kim S said:

don't know what the more experienced think of this method but it worked for her 

It works and you can use milk too, doesn't matter if it goes a bit sour, slugs aren't gourmets - but you wouldn't know it the way they gromph you nice salad crops and best plants - grrrrrr!