Advice on pruning my half eaten honeysuckle please!!

[Cuddlemuffin]

We have a lovely evergreen climbing honeysuckle that we planted about a year ago. I think it's a Lonicera Japonica. In the early spring it had its leaves eaten from the bottom to the top. I've removed quite a lot of the leaves and it still has its stalk ending around the support but it looks very bare and the remaini g leaves are also nibbled so the while thing looks a bit sad.

If I remove all the leaves will they grow back?

Should I pruned it hard and cut the stem down to the bottom?

If I leave it alone will new leaves grow in the stems?

If I do need to do anything, when is the best time of year?

I don't mind another year of no flowers, I just want all the lovely healthy leaves back!
Thanks for any advice!

I have 2 honeysuckles which are not performing well, so my plan is to chop them down in early March and hopefully they’ll be fine and grow fast !

@autumnscene how far from the ground will you chop them? Have you done it before with good results?

I didn’t think Lonicera japonica was evergreen. Could it be L henryii? That’s pretty tough once established. Yours isn’t, yet. I wouldn’t do anything other than a mulch this winter. Don’t feed it - soft growth is more attractive to things that eat plants. It’ll sort itself out next year.

I’ve just pruned my huge honeysuckle hedge. It’ll look bald all winter, but grow quickly in the spring. They benefit from a good hack to rejuvenate the new growth lower down.

Meredint it's certainly evergreen in my sheltered South facing garden, I think it loses some leaves if we get a very harsh winter.

If leaves are removed will they grow back on the stem or should I cut the actual stems? Sorry, you can probably tell I'm new to gardening!

Leave it alone I would say. I think you would only prune it if it is too big for its space.
This spring watch out and try to catch what is eating it before it gets too far, sounds like a caterpillar or bug if it is working it's way up the plant.

One of mine is a halliana which is evergreen. Ill probably chop them down by half, and hope something amazing happens to them. They sure aren’t going to do much not being chopped. So I have nothing to lose. And no, I haven’t done it before.