Regionally-based pest management programs have the potential to greatly improve our knowledge of agroecosystem theory and pest management principles. From an applied perspective, a spatially-referenced agroecosystem approach enables the regional population dynamics and damage impact of highly dispersive species, such as the boll weevil, to be rigorously evaluated for a range of management strategies. This approach has the potential to greatly reduce unnecessary pesticide use, to improve the timing of necessary treatments, and to save growers million of dollars in reduced damage, lowered insecticide use, and reduced monitoring costs. Simulated regional management scenarios show that the likelihood and speed with which boll weevil reinvades and becomes established in an area where it was previously eliminated is a function of the distance between infested fields and a boll weevil free region, and the speed and angle of the prevailing late summer-early fall winds. Implications for optimizing the size of post-eradication buffer zones are discussed.