Carabid beetles meet the requirements of many ecological studies because they are found in almost all terrestrial ecosystems, are responsive to environmental variables, and satisfy the criteria for useful bioindicators. Carabid biodiversity studies are now active nationally and internationally, but sampling regimes are rarely standardized and are often costly and time-consuming. We describe how a pitfall sampling protocol for carabids that is simple and easily repeatable by non-specialists can be used for the rapid assessment of site biodiversity quality baselines for the detection of change. Using this methodology, change in carabid beetle biodiversity quality is revealed, which would not be detected by simple registration of species richness or the presence of rare species.