Corn, melons, and mice.

I’ve been losing cornstalks and melon plants for about a month. Originally I was looking at the possibility that there was woodchuck involvement but have ruled that out. After a few weeks I of observation I think it’s just mice. The bite marks are tiny and there’s mice droppings around the area. I’ve read that they have rapidly growing teeth that need worked down a bit. That’s why they enjoy corn. The melons they are cutting off at the base are only a couple varieties. African horned and Rajasthan honey melons. Both have vines smaller than cucumbers. Pumpkins, gourds, and butternut squash are larger and untouched.
I also noticed that this only happened during dry spells and never near the creek. The only problem is three hundred feet uphill from the creek. Are they just looking for a drink? As crazy as it sounds I started putting small containers of water around that field and the problem stopped. I haven’t lost a plant in a week.
I know how crazy this all sounds and I could be way off with this. As long as I don’t lose anymore plants I’ll continue to top off the water every morning. If anyone else is desperate enough to try this please let me know how it turns out

Last summer, I had some serious tomato losses. I'd see one blushing, and a few days later, there would be only green tomatoes again. I got thrown for a loop for a couple weeks trying to figure out where they were going as it wasn't the usual end-rot or insect damage as the whole fruit was gone.

Could have involved rats/mice, but they are hard to observe. As the droughty summer went on, I'd occasionally see one or two tomatoes, mostly eaten, on the ground. A month into what should have been my tomato harvest, I observed a blackbird actively eating one during the day. I did some reading and saw that blackbirds don't even like tomatoes, and only went after them when under duress. I started setting out shallow trays of water, and the damage to the tomatoes stopped completely, as did bird damage to my spinach. Poor things were just thirsty!

I wish I’d have talked to you earlier! It makes sense that they’d do that. Hopefully folks will try what we did and it will work for them too.
I’m not sure about this deer though, I think she’s just hungry. She cleaned off some sweet potato greens and sun choke tops before moving onto to some elderberries.