Little green caterpillars in vegetables. Are they just a fact of life?

If you want to have some fun:
google caterpillars of southern africa facebook
This is my favourite :)
(screenshot of that site)
Screenshot (67).png
 
How big are they?
Anything from a cm up to 4 or 5cm. The largest are not far off the size of my little finger and about half a thick, but that's rare because I try to have a caterpillar harvest every week through summer.
They're just standard cabbage white caterpillars which is why my chooks are happy to eat them. The caterpillars we get on the grapevines, my chooks won't touch.
 
How big are they?
These blighters were about 2-3 inches long. I picked them off the tomato plants with a pair of chopsticks, since in the past, I've picked them off with my fingers and got burned/poisoned/stung/whatever. They went through some mature tomato plants in a day.
 
I have no idea!
I just know I had to laugh out loud when I saw that picture.
I'll try to find out

Apparently its a saddleback caterepillar. It seems its native to North America and Mexico (no mention of SA, oddly). Disappointingly, it turns into a rather dull brown moth!
 
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