At least for my six-year old son.
When he first spied one of the chubby 3-inch long hornworms among the tomato foliage, he recoiled in horror.
Horror gradually turned to cautious fascination as he helped me find several other hornworms that were feasting on my plant.
Charlie provides Last Rites to a Tomato Hornworm
Five minutes later he was plucking them off by hand, studying them, getting to know them as individuals, naming them things like “Mr. Chewie” and “Spike”.
Then he happily ushered them into the Lepidoptera Afterlife by submerging them in tub of soapy water.
But of course, insect corpses are nearly as fascinating to a six-year-old as live insects, so the dead hornworms provided nearly two hours of amusement for my son as he continued to poke them, prod them, stir them into hornworm stew, and — my personal favorite — drape their dead bodies across my tomatoes and say “Mom! I found some more!”
Not sure if my tomato plants will survive, but I figure if I’m going to lose them to some pest or other, at least the tomato hornworm provides some entertainment value.
Certainly more entertainment value (for a six-year-old) than a tomato salad…..
Black Walnut Dispatch 
I had these on my tomatoes a few years ago. These guys grow with super human speed and decimated my tomatoe plants even faster. 🙂 but they are fascinating
I remember you talking about that and how you didn’t pick it off because you were having too much fun watching it double in size each day! Me and Charlie picked about ten of them off my plants!
Maybe you can enjoy some hornworm stew with your brussel sprout paste.
There is about as much chance he’ll eat any of the tomatoes as there is he’d eat hornworm stew.
And check out how beautiful they are as adults! (And they’re very important pollinators for night-blooming cacti.) http://www.examiner.com/article/sphinx-moths-wear-a-hummingbird-disguise
Awesome! Thanks for the link! Wish I had some night blooming cacti over here.
I remember gardening with my older son and how he would fall in love with the earthworms, then carry them around and pet them.