I have always had coyote problems in my late watermelon crops but this year it has gotten bad. It seems like every female coyote in the country has brought there young of the year to the field. I have slowed them down considerably but seems like a new one shows up every night. I caught a pup last night that was late born must have been about 8 weeks old. These things sure like melons.

They can be bad in the cantaloupes also.

Now you've done it. The hay set is officially dead... queue up.... the Watermelon Set.

...and cantaloupe. I wonder if they like honeydew, I'm willing to try anything!

Wasn't there a big debate on here on topic this years ago? I seem to remember Asa Lenon being involved. Maybe I'm having a flashback/hallucination.

They love peanuts too.

They love watermelons. One of the best summertime baits.

This time of year every critter alive will find and eat a melon. In June they are not as bad.

I recently came across a recipe for cantaloupe jam. One wonders....

Warrior: it would work. Persimmon Jam works for coon and grey fox.

I thought I’d see what would eat a watermelon so I split one long ways and put a camera on it…and nothing, lol. We have some weird critters I guess.

I had a friend who had a coyote digging and eating carrots out of his garden. The coyote was very neat and orderly about it; he would return every night and continue right where he left off the night before, slowly working his way down the row.

The coyotes in ND don't eat many watermelons or peanuts. My weaner dog will pull carrots out of the garden and eat them. She eats ripe raspberry's off the plant too.

I trap them every year that raises watermellons and cantalopes. I'm trapping them now, as they like watermellons much better than cantalopes.

In okla I've seen where them smart ol yotes would ROLL them melons almost 100yrds from patch to enjoy meal in cover. Blew my mind

I do not know how a coyote can roll a watermelon under an electric fence that is 8 inches off the ground into the weeds next door but they can and do regularly around here.

The coyotes seem to know when the are close to being ripe. Wipe us out last week.

How they can tell when a watermelon is ripe is quite simple. When they are ripe, the sugar production is high, causing the sugars to penetrate the rind. So just by licking the rind, they can tell which ones are the most ripe. If you want, try licking the rind of a couple melons, and you can tell which is the most ripe. I know my wife was alarmed when I did this in the store, then picked the most ripe.


Zookeeper

I see them crew the stem of leaving a couple of feet and then drag the melon by the stem. Here they scratch the melon with their front feet exposing rind and I guess lick the rind to see if its ripe.

Why drink out of a mud hole, when you can eat watermelon. The year we had the drought the deer and coyotes at the ripe and green tomatoes right of the plants and okra too. Back at that time the deer got started eating and chewing corn stalks for moisture, now they start in when the corn is 2 ft tall and raining every day.

I cut a field of hay that was surrounded by watermelon fields last year. When I went back to rake it there were watermelon rinds everywhere on top of the windrows. It's amazing how much they love them.

[quote=Monster Toms]
They can be bad in the cantaloupes also.[/quote

If you remember Spencer Bridges from Rocky Ford he trapped
a lot of coyotes out for melon fields in the Arkansas river valley

Thing is , traditional sets will be of little value in melon fields.

Are you in south Louisana by chance ?

Seems to me the time to go after them is early before all the free food gets ripe.

You guys that can use snares would have a leg up on those of us who can't.

A helicopter with a good shooter and lots of ammo works best in the cantaloupe fields of west Texas.
Except the sheep ranchers get all bent out of shape if the government choppers are used on the cantaloupe fields.

No I am in South Arkansas. Dirt holes and flat sets do work some but trail sets around the field are the best way to catch them this time of year