diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 2a9ee018a0f..8aa9387dc75 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -574,6 +574,14 @@ AC_COMPILE_IFELSE([AC_LANG_PROGRAM([[#include <malloc.h>]],
  [ AC_MSG_RESULT(no)]
 )
 
+dnl Check for mallopt(M_ARENA_MAX) (to set glibc arenas)
+AC_MSG_CHECKING(for mallopt M_ARENA_MAX)
+AC_COMPILE_IFELSE([AC_LANG_PROGRAM([[#include <malloc.h>]],
+ [[ mallopt(M_ARENA_MAX, 1); ]])],
+ [ AC_MSG_RESULT(yes); AC_DEFINE(HAVE_MALLOPT_ARENA_MAX, 1,[Define this symbol if you have mallopt with M_ARENA_MAX]) ],
+ [ AC_MSG_RESULT(no)]
+)
+
 AC_MSG_CHECKING([for visibility attribute])
 AC_LINK_IFELSE([AC_LANG_SOURCE([
   int foo_def( void ) __attribute__((visibility("default")));
diff --git a/src/util.cpp b/src/util.cpp
index 486df772fbc..a997199fb04 100644
--- a/src/util.cpp
+++ b/src/util.cpp
@@ -72,6 +72,10 @@
 #include <sys/prctl.h>
 #endif
 
+#ifdef HAVE_MALLOPT_ARENA_MAX
+#include <malloc.h>
+#endif
+
 #include <boost/algorithm/string/case_conv.hpp> // for to_lower()
 #include <boost/algorithm/string/join.hpp>
 #include <boost/algorithm/string/predicate.hpp> // for startswith() and endswith()
@@ -792,6 +796,16 @@ void RenameThread(const char* name)
 
 void SetupEnvironment()
 {
+#ifdef HAVE_MALLOPT_ARENA_MAX
+    // glibc-specific: On 32-bit systems set the number of arenas to 1.
+    // By default, since glibc 2.10, the C library will create up to two heap
+    // arenas per core. This is known to cause excessive virtual address space
+    // usage in our usage. Work around it by setting the maximum number of
+    // arenas to 1.
+    if (sizeof(void*) == 4) {
+        mallopt(M_ARENA_MAX, 1);
+    }
+#endif
     // On most POSIX systems (e.g. Linux, but not BSD) the environment's locale
     // may be invalid, in which case the "C" locale is used as fallback.
 #if !defined(WIN32) && !defined(MAC_OSX) && !defined(__FreeBSD__) && !defined(__OpenBSD__)