We get birds during the day (and bats and rats at night) that eat the fruit. They have never done damage to the stems... But I bet you have squirrels or chipmunks and they were trying it!

Thank you for responding. I didn't think the leaf stems would support a squirrels weight, but I can't think of anything else that would chew into the leaf stems like this. The birds are eating my blueberries, so why not the papaya too :P

My pawpaw bushes are 6 years old, have produced fruit the last two years in abundance but right as they ripen they all disappear at once without any damage to the bushes or leaves. I was thinking about maybe putting netting over them but they are huge and it would take a bunch of netting. Any ideas?

If all the fruit disappears at once without any damage to the plants I'd suspect a two legged pest, and not the feathered kind.

a worm or a spider is eating your papaya tree

AFAIK, There are no vegetarian spiders in the north America, and only one possibly in Central America. Rats eat anything so they could / may eat the stalk but with fruit around, I doubt it.