diff --git a/src/test.py b/src/test.py
index d6642c009..a2885ae57 100644
--- a/src/test.py
+++ b/src/test.py
@@ -227,6 +227,8 @@ class PluginTestCase(SupyTestCase):
         prefixChars = conf.supybot.reply.whenAddressedBy.chars()
         if not usePrefixChar and query[0] in prefixChars:
             query = query[1:]
+        if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+            query = query.encode('utf8', errors='replace') # unicode->str
         msg = ircmsgs.privmsg(to, query, prefix=frm)
         if self.myVerbose:
             print 'Feeding: %r' % msg
@@ -417,6 +419,8 @@ class ChannelPluginTestCase(PluginTestCase):
         prefixChars = conf.supybot.reply.whenAddressedBy.chars()
         if query[0] not in prefixChars and usePrefixChar:
             query = prefixChars[0] + query
+        if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+            query = query.encode('utf8', errors='replace') # unicode->str
         msg = ircmsgs.privmsg(to, query, prefix=frm)
         if self.myVerbose:
             print 'Feeding: %r' % msg