Im no kind of expert on these vines , but I can tell you that Im going to cut mine way back to the point that you will not be able to see any form of life. I had three separate attacks of aphids , but my vine is so thick and bushy that it was hard to get to all the varmits inside its bush. On your plant being bare 4-5ft either that part is dead or it will come back season. It seems you have little choice if it does not get any spring growth then you will need to replace it. Just my opinion.

I have cut my honeysuckle vines down almost to the ground and I am in a cold zone 6 and they come back with even more vigor.

Our native honeysuckles are pretty forgiving and can take a hard pruning. One of my honeysuckles, the Dropmore Scarlet got hit very hard by aphids this year like Steve's but mine never really did fully recover well so the other day I cut it right down to about 6 inches from the ground.

I just add4ed the Gold Flame this year so I will wait a year or two before pruning it unless it gets hit by aphids.

Penny