Melon Growing in Hawaii - Lots of Problems...

I have read on the gardening forum for Hawaii gardeners, that melons do not do well here. Big tomatoes like beef steak, squash, and melons do not do well because of bugs. Fruit flies eat the fruit and damage it. I have encountered leaf problems with my melons this summer. They are tiny bugs that go into the plant from the soil and eat through the leaves from the inside out. When I looked up this problem, I found that the bugs are called leaf miners.

As you can see on the left leaf, there are tiny white lines going all over it. That is where the leaf miner bugs attacked. This happened to all four of my melons that I have been growing in these cups. To solve the problem, I pinched off the leaves that were eaten through, then I placed my melon plants next to my rosemary plant. I also took some sprigs from the rosemary and placed them in the cup, on top of the soil. The rosemary keeps bugs away! To further test my experiment, I grew about six new melon plants. I placed the rosemary in the cup from the time they were very little sprouts. It has been about three weeks, and so far there are no bugs or more specifically, no leaf miners, attacking my newly planted melon seeds. When I plant these babies into the garden, I will need to remember to place rosemary around them as well. A garden is a giant playground for all sorts of pests and bugs, and I don't want them ruining my newly grown melon plants. Now the next thing I have to worry about is the  pesky fruit flies. I don't want those things to start eating the melons once they start developing. I'm going to have to go do some research on keeping them away.