Alien-like: yes. Then again, how about "demonic"?

Did you know that you can actually hear the beasties chewing? Another indication that they're not simple insects....

Your barren stems will recover -- probably in time to be eaten by the next generation of aliens (or is it demons?).

the parents lay eggs on you plants.
If bother to spray the plant with a pesticide that kills chewing or sucking insects you could have prevented the destruction or you could have researched tomato pests before you started growing and taken preventive measures you would not have had this problem.

Sassy, your comment is kind of obnoxious sounding and unhelpful.

I never use pesticides on my plants if I can help it. And if you are vigilant you can keep on top of the hornworms by just watching for them. (Which, understandably, does not work as well if you are unfortunately gone for the weekend)

Larenatc, I think that the likely reason that they attacked the Brandywines is just that that is where the eggs were laid. Kind of the luck of the draw. This is my first year growing potato leafs, so this does not come from experience with them. But in general it is rather random which plants of mine get attacked, there is no consistency from year to year.

Sassy,
In a very narrow view, yes, spraying pesticides will kill off the bad insects and could have prevented the damage. When you think of things on a more broad world view, a lot of the pesticides available are broad spectrum and tend to kill off a lot more insects than just the bad ones.

I was in my garden the other day looking over my plants and watching the different array of insects. I did notice an occasional aphid here and there and actually had a brief thought of maybe spraying them off. Then I noticed some bees and wasps, here and there, and an a coupld odd looking flies.

The flies were flying from flower to flower gathering some nectar. I saw one land on one of the leaves and lay an egg. I was initially creepd out and went to investigate online to see what I could find. What I found was really neat, at least I think so, I found that my weird looking flies were called "Hoverflies". Not only are they pollinating my tomato flowers, but their offspring are keeping the aphids and leafhoppers under control (that's why I only found a sparse one here and there).

My point is, it's easy to say "spray pesticide and all will be fine", but if you look into things a little more you'll find that there might be better ways that let nature sort it out. Had I sprayed a pesticide, I can only imagine it would have killed the hoverflies and possibly even the bees and other pollinators in my garden.

With the worms, however, you may just need to help nature along by plucking them off, heh.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link about Hoverflies

I think basically every day, you just need to check your plants. What I try to do every day usually in the morning is to look through all of my tomato plants. I see if they need water (usually just a quick glance to see if the soil looks dry or the plants wilted. I do the finger test when I have more time usually on weekends). I check to see if there is any fruitset. :) I also check to see if there are any holes in the leaves of the plants. If I do see holes, I try to go over the plant to try to find any hornworms. More often than not, they are there. I'm probably lucky, *knock on wood* but so far I've been able to find the hornworms when they are at the small stage where they have only eaten a couple of leaves. They are typically close to the leaves where the holes are or if you see their droppings, do the look up test and they are on a leaf above the droppings. Sometimes I even try to shake the plant a little bit to see if anything falls off. It's a continuing battle for newbies like us, but hopefully, it'll be worth it in the end.

I think your stems will recover too. Think of it this way, people often recommend doing some pruning of the tomato plant, and those hornworms just did it for you. :) As long as you don't prune the growing tip, you should be okay, and hopefully a few more suckers will grow out.

homegardenpa, I hope I have hoverflies! Anything that pollinates and has larvae that eat aphids, thrips, and leafhoppers gets my vote.

sassy, do you by any chance work for or own stock in a pesticide company? Or have you seen one too many horror films about Giant Insects Taking Over the World? It seems to be a recurring theme in your posts ... though I spose we all have recurring themes.... Mine might be tomato databases and links to helpful sites (i.e. giving Too Much Information whether people want it or not).

"I think your stems will recover too. Think of it this way, people often recommend doing some pruning of the tomato plant, and those hornworms just did it for you. :) As long as you don't prune the growing tip, you should be okay, and hopefully a few more suckers will grow out."

Oh yeah, and to this point, yes, I'd say it's a safe bet they will recover if all else is good with your plants. I had a lot of my plants almost completely stripped of their leaves by birds (damn birds were making a nest out of my plants) when they were still about a foot tall - this included the growing tip - and they still recovered and are doing fine. All of the suckers grew out and are now filling out, floweting, ad setting fruit.

Tomatoes can be pretty hardy given the right conditions, I personally had thought my plants to be goners, some only had a handful of leaves left and they are pretty robust now.

Thanks for the constructive advice. I've been extra vigilant the past few days. Still surprised they have mostly left my 3 Better boy plants along and concentrated on the Brandywine. Glad to also know that the plants can rebound. 4 days away to Atlanta to the Children's Hospital (which is fantastic by the way) and I return to eaten up tomatoes/plants.
Hoping to find the next worm with parasites on him/her.

Sassy: Not sure what I said/posted to elicit such a harsh response, but I try to use as little pesticides as possible. I think you were a little more than 'sassy' in your response. I could think of another name that would may be more fitting.