Carrot Beetle

Tomarus gibbosus · Order: Coleoptera · Family: Scarabaeidae

Damages trees, gardens or crops. It damages sunflowers and other crops.

Source: Wikipedia

Carrot Beetle
Photo: Rajan Rao, CC BY

Adult carrot beetles are 13 to 17 mm long and dark reddish-brown to black.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Adults are dark reddish-brown to black.

Source: Wikipedia

Is it a pest in the house?

They are a pest of sunflowers and other crops.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 32 of 51 states and DC. Most records: New Mexico, Colorado, Kentucky, California, Arizona, Texas, Michigan, Kansas.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Carrot Beetle photo 3
Photo: Rosario Douglas, CC BY
Carrot Beetle photo 4
Photo: Colin Croft, CC BY
Carrot Beetle photo 5
Photo: Carlos A. Armenta, CC BY-SA
Carrot Beetle photo 6
Photo: Rachel Stringham, CC BY

Questions people ask

How big is a carrot beetle?

Adults are 13 to 17 mm long (about 0.5 to 0.7 in).

Source: Wikipedia

What color are carrot beetles?

They are dark reddish-brown to black.

Source: Wikipedia

Do carrot beetles damage crops?

Yes, they feed on roots and are a pest of sunflowers and other crops.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Scarabaeidae)

Japanese BeetleJapanese BeetlePopillia japonicaDamages trees, gardens or cropsCommon Green June BeetleCommon Green June BeetleCotinis nitidaDamages trees, gardens or cropsPhyllophaga crinitaPhyllophaga crinitaPhyllophaga crinitaDamages trees, gardens or cropsEuropean Rose ChaferEuropean Rose ChaferCetonia aurataMediterranean Spotted ChaferMediterranean Spotted ChaferOxythyrea funestaDamages trees, gardens or cropsOriental BeetleOriental BeetleExomala orientalisDamages trees, gardens or crops

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligyrus_gibbosus

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.