diff --git a/plugins/libvirt/kvm_net b/plugins/libvirt/kvm_net
index c416657f..ca4ffe07 100755
--- a/plugins/libvirt/kvm_net
+++ b/plugins/libvirt/kvm_net
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/python
-# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+#!/usr/bin/python3
 # vim: set fileencoding=utf-8
 #
 # Munin plugin to show the network I/O per vm
@@ -112,7 +111,7 @@ def list_pids():
     @return a list of pids from running kvm
     """
     pid = Popen("pidof qemu-kvm qemu-system-x86_64 kvm", shell=True, stdout=PIPE)
-    return pid.communicate()[0].split()
+    return pid.communicate()[0].decode().split()
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":