diff --git a/dionaea/log_wardenfiler.py b/dionaea/log_wardenfiler.py
index bd60dd3cc8580866e2a5ec435c845475e6f0078f..123748620fbe74f4f43444295790a50d23533b63 100644
--- a/dionaea/log_wardenfiler.py
+++ b/dionaea/log_wardenfiler.py
@@ -106,10 +106,15 @@ class LogWardenfilerHandler(ihandler):
         ihandler.__init__(self, path)
         self.path = path
         self._config = config
-    
+
+    def _bytes_to_str(self, s):
+        if isinstance(s, str):
+            return s
+        return str(s, "utf-8", "backslashreplace")
+
     def _fixup_event(self, event):
         if 'database' in event and isinstance(event['database'], bytes):
-            event['database'] = str(event['database'], "utf-8", "backslashreplace")
+            event['database'] = self._bytes_to_str(event['database'])
         return event
 
     def _save_event(self, event):