Inspect closely for a caterpillar type creature

Sounds like Tomato Hornworm.
Look close they blend in really well.
Nasty suckers can eat a plant down to nothing fast.
Sometimes when it's quiet you can actually hear them crunching away at your plants.
I've seen them sitting with their heads tucked under(body looks like a question mark) on a stem when they are digesting or sleeping...
Hard to see even if your looking right at them sometimes.
If you have 1 there are more around I'm sure.
Spray plant with Caterpillar Killer(safer Brand make it among other Co.)It's a bacteria that kills only caterpillars,nothing else.Good stuff.
Grasshoppers/Locusts do the same damage but their droppings usually aren't as you describe...

Just re read your post.
Peppercorn size droppings are more like a mouse/rodent.

Found the "GREEN MONSTER"!!!!! Had this brilliant idea to move the plant to another location that would not be easy to get to. Shook some SEVIN around hoping to catch foot prints. Put it close to a tomato plant on the deck floor. The next morning the pepper looked ok but the tomatoe plant had signs of being eatten. Therer it was on the tomato plant, big thick and green. I killed it (Sorry "ACTIVIST") and looked for others but did not find. That night befoe I went to bed I went out to check. The droppings were on the deck below the pepper plant. I looked real good and there it was. The GREEN MONSTER. Case solved!!
One side note: How did they get on the deck?