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Dropped some immature pods-Any thoughts?

DWB

DWB

Two runt pods in this same stage of ripening have fallen off the last few days. They both have the skinny, dried out looking stems and neither appear very healthy. We had weeks of exceptionally hot and humid conditions followed by 9" of rain in the week ending last Thursday. Is this a factor? Haha, is there a skinny stem disease?
 

 
At this point, all the rest of the many green, orange and ripe red pods seem to be doing great. The plant itself is doing great at over 6' tall while living in a 15 gallon pot. It has nice production and just started kicking out another crop of flowers.
 
 
The normal pods look like these. I and the original grower of the starter plant  believe it to be a traditionally styled Trinidad Scorpion.
 
 
 
     Cut one of the dropped pods open and look for a beetle or weevil larva. Look closely around the calyx for a tiny puncture wound where an egg may have been laid. Have you noticed any slug damage on your plants? Sometimes they chew on pedicels and kill developing pods.
     If you don't see any bugs or damage, it's probably stress. Acute stress usually results in dropped pods.

     Also, those definitely aren't scorpions. But they sure are some good looking bhuts or nagas!
 
Thanks. No evidence of bug damage anywhere on plants or other pods. I'll slice open this pod and have a microscopic look-see. I'm thinking it's probably weather related. I keep this plant and three others up under the edge of a really huge and thick eastern red cedar tree but they still got a lot of water with all the rain.
 
My two reaper plants live up under the nose of our 5th wheel trailer so they didn't get all the rain. Regardless, the only problems I see anywhere (so far) are in the two dropped pods.
 
The grower I got this plant from last year says the scorpions he grows are the "true" scorpions. Maybe so. AJ found this and posted the link. My pods sure look like these CARDI peppers.
 
http://store.puckerbuttpeppercompany.com/products/cp-321-trinidad-scorpion-red-cardi
 
 
Hybrid Mode 01 said:
     Cut one of the dropped pods open and look for a beetle or weevil larva. Look closely around the calyx for a tiny puncture wound where an egg may have been laid. Have you noticed any slug damage on your plants? Sometimes they chew on pedicels and kill developing pods.
     If you don't see any bugs or damage, it's probably stress. Acute stress usually results in dropped pods.

     Also, those definitely aren't scorpions. But they sure are some good looking bhuts or nagas!
Click to expand...
i hate them weevils.
 
Slugs do it to my peppers. They just drill a small hole and then let them rot and fall off. I've had large pods fall off because of tiny slugs that just have to nibble on the nicest chillies. And they never finish one, they rather try every friggin' pod. I have seen a lot of their slime, perhaps they don't like capsaicin? Well, they never touched the Reapers, only chocolate scorps. Bastards.
 
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Hybrid Mode 01 said:
     Cut one of the dropped pods open and look for a beetle or weevil larva. Look closely around the calyx for a tiny puncture wound where an egg may have been laid. Have you noticed any slug damage on your plants? Sometimes they chew on pedicels and kill developing pods.
     If you don't see any bugs or damage, it's probably stress. Acute stress usually results in dropped pods.

     Also, those definitely aren't scorpions. But they sure are some good looking bhuts or nagas!
Click to expand...
 
Look like Devil's Tongues to me.
 
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No exterior holes visible in this thing under 15X inspection.
 
Maybe a bug inside but if so, there's only one. Funny thing is, it never moved in 6 hours. Seems like a bug would move.
 
Note: I should have rotated the bottom picture 180° for proper orientation.
 

 
 
It looks to me like the stems on those pods simply dried up so the pods fell off before they were ripe. I've found a couple of those silly leafhoppers on my plants so I wonder if one of those ruined the two pod  stems? I dusted all of my plants with diatomaceous earth to start cleaning up bugs.
 
Thanks for the link. That's scary stuff. I hope mine don't have that but it's something to watch. With only two pods from five plants showing some of the symptoms, probably not but four of the five are growing in the virtually the same mix of dirt.
 
Update. The remainder of the maturing pods have ripened perfectly so whatever happened only got two of them. It now has new crop of baby pods and flowers coming on strong.
 
As an aside, I've been seeing a praying mantis in this small group of four potted plants. I guess it's a good thing to have a guardian insect like this.
 
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