Looks like rat to me. Watermelon seeds are too small of an incentive for squirrels. Get a cat or two! They are much better than dogs at deterring rodents because they are proactive. I have 3 of them and they spend 90% of their time napping in my garden: squirrels stay at bay, possums also ( except for one that they tolerate on the fence only - not on the ground-) birds do not pick my fruits or vegetables, no rats, no mice = peace of mind. With nectarines, apricots, grapes, plum, pears, tomatoes, cantaloupes, watermelon etc, in my garden, there would be rodents all over the place if it wasn't for them! If you do not want a cat as a pet, associations are giving "barn cats" they are neutered microchipped and vaccinated, they live in barns/sheds and they do their hunter job. But you need to provide a safe place where they can go when it is too cold or too hot, water, food, vaccines, and vet care. Mine are well fed and are spoiled pets so they don't "over hunt" and sleep on our beds. They run after pests but stop the chase as soon as the critters are out of the garden. Good balance. Squirrels are staying high in the trees ( I like squirrels as long as they don't eat my fruits) I keep a stepladder in between my tomato plants, the cat lays on the upper stair and the birds do not even think about my tomatoes: problem solved.

I had a lot of wild rabbits. At any given time, I could see 20 or so in the back yard. I tried "Shake Away," the powder made of bobcat urine (or maybe it's coyote...it's somebody's urine dried up). WORKS GREAT! In fact it worked so well I pretty much ran off the rabbits completely. That saddened me, because I did enjoy watching them frolic in the yard. Even though my local nurseries are anti organic it seems, they do all have Shake Away. (There are similar products) It's under ten dollars, you just sprinkle around the perimeter. It doesn't smell unless you stick your face in it. I really believe in this stuff. BTW, I had a neighbor (they've moved now) with some dogs behind a fence. One baby wild bunny got in the yard and was killed. My neighbor buried the poor thing in MY GARDEN. His wife found out and made him confess. His reason? He figured my soil was softer. Um yeah, because IT'S A GARDEN. I've never really recovered from the bizarro factor of a neighbor burying a dead animal IN MY GARDEN. But get some Shake Away and try it...it works too well, at least on my many cute bunnies.

Emeo2005, I am not familiar with that common name, either. But I would suggest that if you value your plant, you should remove some of those caterpillars! Caterpillars that damage plants in large numbers can be overpowering and the plant may find it difficult to recover. Unless you are in the business of growing butterflies or moths, I would collect some of those caterpillars and take some pressure off the plant! Leave a couple on there if you want to. If you can give us a better idea of what your plant is, we can help ID the caterpillar. Many tend to be host specific. taylorp, you have the oleander caterpillar on your Desert Rose.

First, what area are you in (city,state)? My experience with watermelons is that sometimes they just don't get good cross pollination from bees and such. In our SFG bed, we ended up having to "hand-pollinate", which, you find a female flower (has a small bulb below it), and a male flower (no bulb). Open up both flowers and rub the male flower's pollen center into the femail flower, getting as deep into the flower as you can without hurting it. Yeah, sounds dirty ;o) Also, watermelons require a ton of water, so make sure your soil does not dry out. If you get watermelons, then just before harvest time you want to back off on watering so that the watermelon's sugars concentrate inside (they don't get watered down), and you will have a sweet watermelon. Hope this helps.