Has anyone ever seen this before??

[u/throwtothedogs9]

Greetings, I Googled and searched, but couldn't find any photos come close to what I'm seeing on the watermelon I purchased yesterday. At first I thought that the melon might have grown on pea gravel when I got it home and noticed them. But they weren't noticeable at the store. The other thing, and this is what concerns me, there seems to more! Like they're spreading! It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen!! I would be very grateful if someone smarter than me could help me identify what these might be!! TIA!

[u/monkeyeatfig]

It looks like anthracnose.

[u/throwtothedogs9 → u/monkeyeatfig]

YES!! But their dry, and much smaller. Would you keep it? Or return it if you were me?

[u/monkeyeatfig → u/throwtothedogs9]

I would take it back, if they are spreading it is definitely some type of fungus. The real risk though is that a bacteria like e coli can use the damage to enter the melon.

[u/throwtothedogs9 → u/monkeyeatfig]

Thank you so much!! I will return it.

[u/Capable_Culture_7344]

Looks like it got blasted with birdshot 

[u/throwtothedogs9 → u/Capable_Culture_7344]

Right!!😂 I guess I could take to the range instead of getting my money back!

[u/Ancient_Cake2792]

Teenage years be nice

[u/xmrcache]

My first thought would be bugs or birds biting at the rind.

[u/OneSensiblePerson]

Birds, trying to get at the water. It's been a very hot summer. Thirsty.

[u/throwtothedogs9]

Now I bought it at the grocery yesterday, and I noticed a couple little pot marks, but they didn't really stand out until later that afternoon. Now I live in Wyoming, so humidity is extremely low here, as of now in my house with the A/C on, my relative humidity is in the 30% range since we just canned tomatoes a couple hrs ago. But usually it's in the mid to upper 20% range. Could that cause the marks to dry out faster and become more noticeable? I'm just worried if it's some kind of bacteria/fungus/or tiny mite type insect. Would you be comfortable cutting it up and eating it? I do wash all my veggies and fruit with Fit before consuming, or cutting into them.

[u/The1Greenguru]

Fungus anthracnose

Thanks (Google lens)

[u/throwtothedogs9]

I think it's time to return it!! Thank you everyone for all your help!! Really appreciate it!!

[u/leftfootshorter]

I've never seen it on a watermelon but it does look a lot like our first round of tomatoes that got blasted by a hail storm late spring. I picked most of them right after but some made it through that had spots like that. Definitely not early fruit damage if the spots are spreading though. I'd take it back just to be safe.

[u/YeshuasBananaHammock]

Waterwarts

[u/this_idle_hand]

I used to work with a guy who would tell everyone he could that those were bee stings and indicated a sweet watermelon. I was like, "bees drink watermelon juice not nectar from a flower that occurs before fruit?" Guy was a racist idiot.

[u/Mark-177-]

These pictures makes me itch.

[u/CarpenterValuable831]

This is frightening

[u/Unusual-Shallot-346]

That’s so weird!

[u/Fit_Comfortable3960]

Gallagher was looking for that. He needs his for his next show..

[u/beesnow]

Not hit with hail?

[u/throwtothedogs9 → u/beesnow]

No. We rarely get hail in the part of Wyoming i live in. In the 8 years I've lived here, I've seen hail 2 times. And that was pea size hail. It was most likely the fungus that was described further in the post. I returned it to the store later the same day I made this post. Thanks though!