In your picture, I don't see any "things". I see dried leaf edges. Are they insects? What do they look like?

If you zoom in you can see black dots which are not part of the leaf and I can like scrape them off

Black dots could be spider mites, but the damage I see doesn't look like spider mite damage. Neem would deal with them. The damage I see is large scale, and black dots probably couldn't manage it. I suspect you have a problem with some larger insect. Armyworms can skeletonize leaves, and Bt should help with them.

I suspect that the black stuff is frass. Spider mites would be invisible in those pictures.

Nicole, if you are in Florida, at least in the central to southern region, I wouldn't expect your melon plants to look any better than they do. It's October, but still hot and humid. That doesn't look like fungal disease, but insects are pretty active right now. I don't usually have trouble with bugs , but they are currently feasting on my beans and broccoli plants. I leave the bugs to the lizards and birds , so I have no experience with insecticides. I'd cut off the damaged leaves and discard them far away from my plants and hope for the best.

Sure looks like tiny caterpillar damage to me - possibly armyworms. They hatch in masses and skeletonize leaves like that.

I agree the tiny black things are likely their poop, a.k.a. frass. Like most caterpillars, they extrude silk too, which would account for the webbing.

Have you closely examined affected leaves yet? You may find a teensy little caterpillar or 2 under there. It appears, though, that most of them may already be history.