The status of cotton pest shifts and intensity levels following eradication of the boll weevil from the North Carolina-Virginia area, begun in 1978, was evaluated. Despite the finding of occasional, passively-transported boll weevils into the "weevil-free" area and an elevation in the pest status of European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) and green stink bug (Acrosternum hilare), the elimination of these localized weevil populations and the greater ease of economically managing the bollworm/tobacco budworm complex (Helicoverpa zea and Heliothis virescens, respectively) and other pests has allowed the development of an inexpensive, threshold-based, pestspecific system of managing cotton insects unique to the Southeast and mid-South.