diff --git a/neutron/agent/linux/ip_conntrack.py b/neutron/agent/linux/ip_conntrack.py
index 648ab332ad8..4a9e70fb9db 100644
--- a/neutron/agent/linux/ip_conntrack.py
+++ b/neutron/agent/linux/ip_conntrack.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import eventlet
 import netaddr
 from oslo_concurrency import lockutils
 from oslo_log import log as logging
+from six.moves import queue as Queue
 
 from neutron.agent.linux import utils as linux_utils
 from neutron.common import constants as n_const
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@ class IpConntrackUpdate(object):
 class IpConntrackProcessingQueue(object):
     """Manager of the queue of conntrack updates to process."""
     def __init__(self):
-        self._queue = eventlet.queue.LightQueue()
+        self._queue = Queue.Queue()
 
     def add(self, update):
         self._queue.put(update)
@@ -51,15 +52,8 @@ class IpConntrackProcessingQueue(object):
     def updates(self):
         """Grabs the next conntrack update from the queue and processes."""
         while not self._queue.empty():
-            try:
-                update = self._queue.get()
-                yield update
-            except IndexError:
-                # queue was empty, another worker stole our entry
-                continue
-            except Exception as e:
-                LOG.error("Failed to yield ip_conntrack process queue "
-                          "entry: %s", e)
+            update = self._queue.get()
+            yield update
 
 
 @lockutils.synchronized('conntrack')
@@ -89,11 +83,9 @@ class IpConntrackManager(object):
         self.zone_per_port = zone_per_port  # zone per port vs per network
         self._populate_initial_zone_map()
         self._queue = IpConntrackProcessingQueue()
-        # Don't start the queue processing thread here, do later when
-        # the first entry is added to the queue.
-        self._process_queue_started = False
+        self.start_process_queue()
 
-    def _start_process_queue(self):
+    def start_process_queue(self):
         eventlet.spawn_n(self._process_queue_loop)
 
     def _process_queue_loop(self):
@@ -113,9 +105,6 @@ class IpConntrackManager(object):
                                              update.rule)
 
     def _process(self, device_info_list, rule, remote_ips=None):
-        if not self._process_queue_started:
-            self._process_queue_started = True
-            self._start_process_queue()
         # queue the update to allow the caller to resume its work
         update = IpConntrackUpdate(device_info_list, rule, remote_ips)
         self._queue.add(update)