diff --git a/pkg/manager/watch_annotations.go b/pkg/manager/watch_annotations.go
index 30e2b78a..9b98cd5b 100644
--- a/pkg/manager/watch_annotations.go
+++ b/pkg/manager/watch_annotations.go
@@ -41,6 +41,9 @@ func annotationsWatcher(ctx context.Context, clientSet,
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	if len(nodeList.Items) == 0 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("no node found with hostname %q", config.NodeName)
+	}
 
 	// We'll assume there's only one node with the hostname annotation. If that's not true,
 	// there's probably bigger problems
diff --git a/pkg/manager/watch_annotations_test.go b/pkg/manager/watch_annotations_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c25ea528
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/manager/watch_annotations_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+package manager
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/kube-vip/kube-vip/pkg/kubevip"
+	"k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes/fake"
+)
+
+func TestAnnotationsWatcherHandlesEmptyNodeList(t *testing.T) {
+	client := fake.NewSimpleClientset()
+	config := &kubevip.Config{
+		NodeName:    "node-a",
+		Annotations: "kube-vip.io",
+	}
+
+	if err := annotationsWatcher(context.Background(), client, client, config); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("annotationsWatcher() error = nil, want empty node-list error")
+	}
+}