K wrote:
If you really feel you must do something, try a soap spray.
My experience is that a heavy infestation on honeysuckle may look
unsightly but doesn't trouble the plant - it will still grow and flower.
Live with it if you can.

I found that using soapy water spray kind of burn the buds if I apply
it too early in the season. I use my fingers to remove the bugs as much
as I can.

Remember being organic isn't a thing you can just do for a year - the
predators build up over a period of time, so for the first year you feel
a bit desperate, but over the years the pests become less and less
troublesome. But you won't get rid of them completely, nor do you want
to, because you need *something* for the predators to eat!

It takes an average of 12 years for a garden or field to recover from
chemical use. Given the age of some gardeners, not many fancy waiting
that long to see the difference and keep using chemicals, sadly. We are
just about seeing the change in our garden. Even though I don't feed
the birds, and there's cats all over the place, there's enough
predators to eat all the bugs.

What I'm dreading are the silk worms from the street trees. I'm not
sure if there's something I can do, beside having just pruned severely
our holly tree to air the garden a bit, cut down one of our 3 hawthorns
but if there's something I can do, please let me know!