Dear Colleagues,

We would like to announce that the 29th International Working Group of Ostrinia and other maize pest (IWGO) Conference of the International Organization of Biological Control (IOBC) will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, between 28th and 31th of October 2025.
We like to inform you that we will partner with the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) who have agreed to co-host the IWGO event at their MARDI Auditorium on the MARDI campus in Putrajaya, away from the hustle of Kuala Lumpur city. Despite the high interest in fall armyworm, we would like to point out that the scientific programme will not only focus on fall armyworm control options and that other topics will be discussed too, such as the success and challenges of non-chemical control approaches of different maize pests and the genomics of maize pest insects. An field trip will be organized in collaboration with MARDI and offered for optional registration on Friday 31th of October 2025.

In the next step, we will contact you to collect ideas for scientific session and to identify teams of co-session organizers following the format of earlier IWGO conferences. We are considering continuing with the 10-minute oral contribution format and to allow 10-minute discussion time for each oral contribution as this worked out extremely well during our recent conference in Kenya.

We are looking forward to arranging a stimulating IWGO conference and hope that you will contribute through the submission of scientific session ideas and oral contributions and of course your active personal participation in Malaysia.

Please forward this message to colleagues potentially interested in such an event!

Many thanks,