Does it look more like an insect is gnawing on it, or a small animal like a mouse, rodent, rabbit, etc.?

All kinds of animals like melons, usually either for the water content OR the sugar content if they are close to ripening.

When melons implode it can be from a disease, or from too much water. Usually if it is a disease, you will see symptoms on the foliage long before the fruit is affected enough to implode.

Is your garden fenced in to keep the animals out? About the only words of wisdom I have to offer at this point is that I always grow my small melons and cukes inside tomato cages and let the vines climb the cages. The cages protect the plants from some of the larger gnawing animals, and the melons or cukes are usually high enough up off the ground that common pests in my garden (turtles and rabbits mostly) can't reach them to eat them.

Do you have a lot of roly-poly bugs in your garden? They love all fruits and melons and can eat out surprisingly large holes in the fruits and veggies.

Dawn

Rolypolys? By the thousands, it seems. Everywhere in the yard/garden/flowerbeds. Should they be gotten rid of? If so, how? (Can you tell I don't really know what I'm doing?)

Thanks.

Because I use tons and tons of mulch, I have tons and tons of roly poly bugs, both the pillbugs and the sowbugs. They will climb any and all veggie plants and eat and eat and eat the fruit/veggies.

I have only found one product that is successful in controlling them, and it is actually an organic product labeled to control snails and slugs. There are several brand names, but the key ingredient is iron phosphate. The one I usually buy is called Slug-Go, but there is also Escar-Go and I recently saw iron phosphate in an organic slug killer at Lowe's, but don't remember the name brand.

You sprinkle the iron phosphate product around the garden and you will see fewer and fewer sowbugs and pillbugs, and, thus, less damage. I really believe this product has helped me so, so much this year as the sow and pill bugs were really out of control and were decimating my tomatoes and beans.

It won't kill all of them, and you probably wouldn't want it to, because they are great at breaking down decomposing material that will then enrich the soil, but it will keep them to a manageable level.

Be sure to get the product whose active ingredient is Iron Phosphate--it is non-toxic to pets and wildlife. DO NOT get the standard chemical product for snails/slugs which has metaldahyde as its' active ingredient--it is very toxic.

Dawn