Increasing pressure to reduce the use of pre and post-harvest treatment chemicals to control insect pests has led to calls for alternative control methods. As a result, the implementation of area-wide management of pests could be developed as either an alternative to chemicals or as a means of reducing pesticide use. However, maintaining an area-wide management programme can be expensive as it requires the execution of surveillance activities, exclusion measures and contingency plans for a rapid eradication response in the case of a pest outbreak. A sound benefit-cost analysis is an essential starting point to measure gains from research and development into improved methods of surveillance and exclusion. This paper presents a study of the costs of surveillance measures. We applied our model to the Fruit Fly Exclusion Zone (FFEZ) in South Eastern Australia.