diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index 7a337ae..cb82af5 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -39,10 +39,6 @@ def configure(conf):
   # MySQL flags and libraries
   conf.env.append_unique('CXXFLAGS', Utils.cmd_output(Options.options.mysql_config + ' --include').split())
   conf.env.append_unique('LINKFLAGS', Utils.cmd_output(Options.options.mysql_config + ' --libs_r').split())
-
-  # check for ev library before trying to use it
-  if not conf.check_cxx(lib="ev"):
-      conf.fatal("ev library not found");
   conf.env.append_unique('LINKFLAGS', ["-lev"])
 
   if not conf.check_cxx(lib="mysqlclient_r", errmsg="not found, try to find nonthreadsafe libmysqlclient"):