I had the same problem with green bean seeds. I strung up some string and hung those disposable pie plates from the string. Just put a hole in the rim of the pie dish and thread a string thru. Then tie to your upper line. Make sure they are off the ground about 6 inches. The pie tins spin and turn with very little breeze and as soon as your plant have the secondary leaves they should be ok. If in doubt - leave the pie tins up. Save them from year to year also or start seeds indoors and put out with secondary leaves. They just want the seed I think. Any questions, feel free to ask. The pie tins always worked for us and I hope they do for you also.

A helpful hint that I can't help give is that if you have the time, you should put dirt over each node of the vine, where the leaves come out from the vine, so that secondary roots will establish. I don't know exactly how helpful it is but I do it every day and it seems to be helping my vine alot. Especially since I see you all are in california and the low humidity evaporates a lot of the water before it gets to the end of the vine, these secondary roots closer to the tip can help establish healthier leaves and everything. I definately see my vine wilting less since it has established more roots, you never know we might have a heat wave like the rest of the country did later in the summer.

I do not like to automatically blame teens for things like this, but the girls may be your culprits since they were in the area and may have seen the pumpkin patch. But, without proof, you can't accuse them. If you see them again, you might mention that a pumpkin was stolen from your patch and ask if they saw anyone hanging out in the area. Might make them realize what they did was wrong - if it was them. One of my neighbors looked out her window one day to see a man and his young son cutting branches off of her fir trees. She went outside and asked them what they were doing. "cutting branches for a wreath" they said. She replied that the area was clearly mark no trespassing, that the trees were on private property and that they did not have permission to cut branches off of her trees. "We're not hurting anything, you have lots of trees" the man replied. When she further objected, he started swearing at her and calling her a b*tch. At that point, she ordered him off of her property and threatened to call law enforcement. The thing is, if he had been nice and polite about it and asked for permission first, she would have let him have all the branches he wanted. Honestly, the entitlement of some people - it boggles the mind.

This is only happening at the end of one vine. The rest of the plant is healthy. It's out of reach of deer... Any ideas?