On Mon, 05 Jun 2006 14:47:40 GMT, brickled wrote:
u name it - i've faced about every watermelon pest out there - please be
more specific as to what has ailed you in the past.

after years of trying less energy-intensive methods, i've resorted to the
following:

1. 2 foot rabbit fence around the entire melon patch - this keeps out
rabbits (they often trash my sweet corn too) and turtles.

That's good, since I also planted some corn as well.

Are there are chemical methods? Such as sprinkling cayenne pepper around?

2. 10 foot t-posts spaced every 10 feet around the entire melon patch with a
16 guage wire run every 8" from just above the rabbit fence to the top of
the t-posts. this is sadly the only method i've tried that actually keeps
the deer from trashing the melon/corn patch. in the following picture u can
kind of get the idea of what i mean by this setup - i happen to be showing
corn in this pic but the same principles apply to the melon patch side of
the garden -
http://home.earthlink.net/~brickled/...arden05008.jpg

I do not think that deer are an issue.

i